The instructors for the New Zealand drama school are selecting the first year students. Stanley is admitted. The teacher Hanna is hard on him when he fails to add any emotion to his lines with Frankie. Shy and reserved Stanley meets his two roommates, William and Theo. Teacher Livia wants him to use life experiences to act authentically. Add a "Fuck you" and get physical. This is an acting school. A sex scandal breaks exposing married tennis pro George Saladin and his star student Victoria. Stanley meets Isolde and they exchange phone numbers. Stanley is assigned to a five-member group acting project. He meets with Hanna and does not connect with this teacher. She wants him to try harder and dig deeper. After lunch with his psychologist father, he does a role playing his father who likes to tell bad jokes. Dad does not want his son to be an actor. Hanna really liked his performance and gave him a book from her own library to read. She tells him acting is hard and he must go all the way. Keep going. Finally he has started acting. Victoria and Isolde are sisters and they talk a little about the scandal. Isolde tells her sister that she likes Stanley. Later Isolde tells Stanley she had seen Saladin with her sister. There was no forced sex and it looked consensual to her. Stanley's group has decided to use the sex scandal as their acting project. Stanley has not told Isolde and William reminds him she should know. The next in class assignment is to act an intimate scene. William tells of an Easter dinner event where his father humiliates his mother. Hanna did not like it. He only told a story. Intimacy requires the actor to bear his soul. There must be trust. William says this class was the last place he would share intimacy. Frankie talks to coach Saladin at the coffee shop trying to get background for their project. Isolde invites Stanley and William over for a barbeque. William plays with the family dog. Victoria secretly borrows Stanley's phone to call her coach. William wants Stanley to tell Isolde about their project and once again he fails to come clean. Later the coach calls Stanley to tell Victoria that he has changed his mind. He is staying with his wife. Hanna has heard of Stanley's girlfriend. She tells him to call off a schoolgirl crush and not embarrass the Institute. He sees Isolde and asks her to return his book, but can he just have one picture. She tells him if you will find a private place, I will show you much more. They have sex. They are in love. Nonetheless the tennis project continues mocking teacher sex with a student. During teacher Perry's class, they announce that William has died in a car crash. At William's memorial service, Stanley sees Isolde kissing a girl. She tells him that she is sorry but he walks away. Later at a rehearsal, Marnie asks Stanley did he drop Isolde because of the other girl or because of their play. He says she was just too young. There was dissent at a student assembly. Teacher Livia takes the student's side and thinks Dean Hanna Bauer cares more about her new theatre than student grief. In fact she walks out. Later in the parking lot, Hanna tells Stanley that the sex scandal is a great subject even though the coach has plead guilty. She calls it great agent bait. Isolde goes to the school looking for Stanley and finds all the set decoration for the play. She feels betrayed. Stanley finally goes to the Isolde home and tells them about the play. The father Stephen cannot believe how they can violate the family's privacy. Never contact either of his daughters and get out of their home. He explains the performance is cancelled. Stanley tells Isolde he loves her. The night of the performance the curtain parts a small opening, the music starts and the house lights come on. The audience waits. Frankie walks down the isle and walks through the curtain. Minutes later another woman walks down the aisle and through the curtain. Stanley walks down one aisle and Isolde walks down another and they jointly enter the curtain. William loved the "First Follow Technique" and more and more of the audiencewalked on stage and through the curtain.
Glenn Kenny movie critic for the New York Times explains the years absence of the New Zealand director Maclean from the screen because she was busy on several television series. Kenny finds the film worth the wait with this coming of age tale following the students at a prestigious New Zealand drama academy. He likes watching life and art rub against one another as well as watching actors with talent gain credibility with good teaching and training. The director "delivers a good hour and a half of engagement and intrigue" only to ask "Really?" at the ending.
