REWIND REVIEW: Waiting For "Superman"

MOVIE
Waiting For "Superman"

RATING
PG

RELEASE
September 24, 2010

DIRECTOR
Davis Guggenheim

STUDIO(S)
Paramount Vantage,
Participant Media

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 51 minutes






STARS
****










REVIEW:

The world in today's economy is in a way falling to ashes. With the numerous earthquakes and tsunamis going on, it's hard for many to gain an education and live a successful life. Actually, the majority of families over the world are indeed poor. Many families are poor for different reasons. Some even have to enter their kids into a lottery in order to get into school. That's the basic premise of Waiting For "Superman," the latest documentary from Davis Guggenheim, the director of the Academy Award winning documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' And just like 'Inconvenient,' 'Superman' is scary, shocking, and incredibly brilliant. This is, and I sincerely mean this, one of the most important movies ever made.

SYNOPSIS (Courtosy of FilmJabber.com)For a nation that proudly declared it would leave no child behind, America continues to do so at alarming rates. Despite increased spending and politicians' promises, our buckling public—education system, once the best in the world, routinely forsakes the education of millions of children. Oscar®—winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education "statistics" have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of "Waiting for Superman." As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop—out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind.

I mean it when I say that this is one of the most important movies ever made. This movie shows so many scary but real examples of the education the students of America that kids are getting. I bet you didn't know that only 12% of kids in Washington DC are functionable in reading and writing? This is only one of the many shocking facts presented in this documentary. Davis Guggenheim has made an EXCELLENT documentary, and I really mean that. I think that this movie should be seen by everyone, especially the teachers of every school in the world. For every student who thinks that their life sucks, take a look at the kids who have to live by getting into a school through luck. That is just a terrifying situation.

Think of this movie as a two hour PSA. (Public Service Announcement) I recently had to create a 30 second PSA, so I know how tricky some subjects can be to bear. And unfortunately, this is one of those types of tricky subjects. This movie will shock and scare many people, and it's supposed to. The movie is sad, so sad you may want to bring tissues to live with the fact that most kids aren't able to get into school by choice. They're waiting for a hero, a "Superman" if you may say. Why do you think that this movie has that title?