Shop Class
2018 · 8m · Canada
Directed by Hart Snider
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age
Tones: darkly comic, humorous
Fourteen-year-old Hart Snider lands in industrial arts instead of the cooking class he wanted, where a feared teacher, a ukulele mishap and a threat of suspension turn shop class into a gauntlet.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A coming-of-age comedy that actually *resists* the genre's tired emotional beats—the ukulele detail alone signals Snider knows how to find absurdity in the mundane without winking at the camera, which is rarer than it should be.
The film displays precise command of tonal register, walking a careful line between slapstick and genuine jeopardy that recalls the best of '80s teen cinema while maintaining its own compositional discipline.
That ukulele mishap isn't just a plot device—it's the fulcrum on which the entire emotional logic pivots, and Snider's decision to let it unfold without overexplaining turns a small comedic moment into something that reframes everything about the power dynamic in the room.