Before the Dawn is a 2019 drama about a young high school teacher who moves to a new town for a fresh start and falls for a troubled student.
Lila Kendy (Alana de Freitas) looks to begin again in a new town, uprooting her life and taking a job as an English teacher in a well-to-do high school. In her class is Jason Walker (Jared Scott), a good kid and recent transfer student on a crooked path, his reputation as a bad seed sort of earned in school, his homelife in turmoil after his older brother ends up in jail. Now he sells drugs on the side and hangs out with old friends, troublemakers his parents wish he would stay clear of. Eventually, Lila and Jason find themselves attracted, two lonely people drawn emotionally to each other, though it soon escalates and when their affair is discovered, it changes everything.
It’s a touchy subject, naturally so, and while movies have taken to illicit stories of taboo teacher/student relationships before, writer and star Alana de Freitas tries to give the sex some personal intimacy, building background to these two characters before putting them between the sheets. Still, the sex is presented rather fantastically, meaning lots of soft lighting, hands clenching, sweeping orchestral music, and every other romantic cliché you can think of, not really giving it the sort of awkward, experimental, even risky encounter it feels more prone to be. That’s a design choice, one some may buy into, but I know I would have be more pulled into their decision if it were presented less like a scene from an overwrought adult romantic drama and allowed to be more well, real.
Still, that’s a quibble, as authenticity isn’t really the point, Before the Dawn playing out more like well-made movie of the week than a hard-hitting character study as Lila allows herself to fall into the sex while later trying to suppress the genuine feelings she has for her underaged lover. Same goes for Jason. Meanwhile, another teacher (Houston Rhines) shows interest in her, hoping for a relationship of his own before leaping across a very decidedly troubling line when he uncovers the truth. There’s even a jealous female co-worker (Carissa Dalton). As this goes on, Jason finds himself sinking deeper into the chaos of his involvement with drug dealers, walking a path that could land him right beside his brother.
All the expected parts are in place and as such, the movie keeps things mostly level, plotting the sex, violence, and emotions at a low simmer, doing as it promises in unspooling the threads. It’s entirely transparent yet done with weighty performances and commitment to its proper embattled end that it absolutely works as intended – a pulpy melodrama – steering the controversial tryst away from the usual obsessive, murderous angles this sort of thing employs to a more personal struggle. It’s not the story you might expect with the setup in place, but is very well-acted and directed (by Jay Holben), almost unabashedly earnest in delivering its outcome, and at least, honest with its characters. That’s something to appreciate given how often movies like this discard personality in favor of exploitation. Recommended.