Dave Jennings ("Animal House"): "Anybody want to smoke some pot?" Donald Sutherland's professor asks his college students in a haltingly creepy voice before turning out the lights and passing around a joint to them in his living room. Mustachioed, prone to radical politics and - oh, yes - sleeping with a coed, Sutherland turns in one of the great subversive-teacher performances when he plays a restless English professor intent on showing his students the real world, or at least his version of it.
Jim McAllister ("Election"): Matthew Broderick's simmering, resentful high-school teacher actively works to derail the campaign of perky student council president aspirant Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) in director Alexander Payne's black comedy. The scene in which Mr. McAllister is watching cheerleader-themed pornography? Give the man an A-plus for awful.
Ed Rooney ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off"): Driven by his all-consuming determination to prove that Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is not ill but playing hooky, Jeffrey Jones' Mr. Rooney (who is technically the dean of students) embarks on an all-out quest that ends with him breaking into Bueller's home. A misdemeanor, probably, but an act certain to go on his permanent record. Honorable mention goes to Ben Stein as the world's most boring economics teacher.
Dan Dunne ("Half Nelson"): Ryan Gosling gives a career-making performance as a devoted inner-city junior-high teacher who's not exactly a good role model. Although he's a crack addict, he goes on to befriend a young girl on the basketball team just the same. The dramatic indie from directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden earned Gosling an Oscar nomination.
