Movie Critics' Reviews

Some audiences may find themselves questioning the accuracy of the film’s worrisome statistics, while others may find themselves in awe of how unaware they were of the situation at hand or thinking of what they could possibly do to help contribute to American education. The documentary Waiting for Superman was released in September of 2010, and since then a number of movie reviews have provided an explanation for what has happened as well as a solution to the problem. The film follows five children across America each applying for a spot in a charter school. Their acceptance is determined by a lottery, and, for some of these students, acceptance could be a matter of graduating from a four-year university within the next ten years or straying down the wrong path. As we follow each of these low-income families we learn more about the children's willingness to learn despite the inconvenient school situations they may face. Their desire and drive is what keeps their hope alive knowing that there is still a small chance of them succeeding, despite the fact that the fate of their education is not in their hands. By the end of the movie, tears of sadness mixed in with tears of joy paint an overall picture of what American education has become of today. Along the lines of sorrow, three reviews of the film stood out the most: The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert), and The New Yorker Magazine. Each of these publishers are relatively well-known for their in-depth analysis of the subject, as well as their creative thoughts and opinion-based responses to the film. All three articles are available in either print or online text, and the review publication dates vary. The New York Times and The New Yorker Magazine articles were published within the first month of the movie’s release, while Roger Ebert’s review was released several months before the film was released. This rare occurrence is significant because during this period Roger Ebert focused on a different film, A Small Act, regarding the education system of Kenya and compared it to America’s failing public school education system. Each of the three reviews agreed on two separate ideas: the unfairness that a simple lottery ball will decide the fate of your education, and the disorganization of the teachers’ union as well as the unprofessional behavior of inadequate tenured teachers. The combination of these two things creates an unstable atmosphere for students, resulting in the downfall in test scores and an increase in dropout rates.


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Movie Critics' Reviews