"This is one of the most galvanizing documentaries I’ve ever seen"
September 27, 2010
David Edelstein reviews Waiting for Superman. If you have a friend in the AFT, please take 'em to see it. Make it your treat.
More, from "Schools: The Disaster Movie," New York magazine, 9/5:
Among leaders of the burgeoning education-reform movement, the degree of anticipation surrounding “Superman” is difficult to overstate. “The movie is going to create a sense of outrage, and a sense of urgency,” says Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s secretary of Education. New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein concurs. “It’s gonna grab people much deeper than An Inconvenient Truth, because watching ice caps melt doesn’t have the human quality of watching these kids being denied something you know will change their lives,” Klein says. “It grabs at you. It should grab at you. Those kids are dying.”
Still more, from the New York Post's report on the NYC opening:
"I'm almost speechless with horror and disgust," said viewer Rita Callahan, who works for Con Ed. "I'm embarrassed to be an American. I can't believe what we let happen."
The New York Times's reviewer calls the movie "a powerful and alarming documentary about America’s failing public school system".