In 2006 director Davis Guggenheim’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”, examined the problem of global warming. In 2010 Guggenheim followed that Oscar-winning film with “Waiting for Superman”, which looks at another major issue: the problems with the public school system in America. While “Superman” won’t win an Oscar since it, shockingly, didn’t even get a nomination, it’s an important film.
The movie focuses on the lives of five grade school students, each from a different part of the country. All of them are having trouble learning, and their families are trying to help. But Guggenheim shows, with his interviews, charts and animated graphics, that the problems with the education system in the U.S. are overwhelming. We learn about shocking drop-out rates, the incredibly high number of bad teachers and how tough it is to have bad teachers fired.
There’s a lot of information in “Superman”, some of it quite surprising. But it’s presented in a way that’s easy to understand, though it’s tough to remember all of the facts and statistics. It’s one of those movies that you wish, after it’s over, that you were taking notes. But all the information is combined nicely with teacher interviews and comments from the students and their parents.
Even though the five kids are the center of the film, they’re not in the movie as much as I was expecting, and so I didn’t really get too emotionally attached to them. But you do still root for them, at the end, to get the opportunity they need to get a better education. I was also a little disappointed that “Superman” deals more with the problems than with the solutions, though it’s clear what the filmmaker thinks needs to be done for America to return to the days when our students were among the best and the brightest in the world.
Guggenheim does mix-in a few lighter moments, mostly through clips from TV shows such as “The Simpsons”, “Leave it to Beaver” and “Welcome Back Kotter”, but other than those this film is pretty grim. It’s rated PG, but even though it’s about young kids, it’s not really FOR young kids. However, middle school and high school students should see “Superman”, though many of their teachers won’t be happy about it.
As with many of these “change the world” documentaries, there isn’t really an uplifting ending. It leaves you knowing that the problem is worse than you thought and you can only hope that enough people can get together and make the right changes. The DVD features include updates, deleted scenes, and a featurette called “The Future is in Our Classrooms.”
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Waiting for Superman” gets a B.
It’s definitely worth seeing, especially for parents.