"Won't Back Down" ... Does it Make the Grade??

Inspired by true events, here is a story of two dedicated and passionate mothers (Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal), one who is also a teacher, who just want what is right for their children as well as the children that they serve in the local Pittsburgh school. Both women face a prevailing and deep-rooted bureaucracy, in which they must risk their careers and their livelihood to make a difference in the education system and for the future of their children.

Entering the film, it has a somewhat central focus on a young elementary school girl named Malia Fitzpatrick (Emily Alyn Lind). Malia is a girl who is struggling in school because she suffers from dyslexia. However, her mother Jamie (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is convinced that her daughter can learn, but that the school she attends is not investing the time to actually teach her. And once she learns how Malia is being secluded and reprimanded for falling behind, instead of being given opportunities to catch up, Jamie takes matters into her own hands. Soon Jamie’s frustrations and complaints lead her to Nona Alberts (Viola Davis), a teacher who spends much of her off-time making sure her own son stays on track, because the school is failing him as well.

As a team, Jamie and Nona come together to devise a plan of action to transform the school. In their quest to unite the community and neighborhood parents, both run into some resistance from fellow teachers, administration, and the school board. Fighting to make a change takes a toll on both women personally and professionally, but against all odds the duo dedicate long days and sleepless nights to make a change for this one particular school.

Both Davis and Gyllenhaal do a pretty decent job of balancing each of their character’s roles. Each actress plays a strong-minded and beleaguered woman who will stop at nothing to reach the end goal. Davis, in particular, cleverly utilizes her body language to convey pride in her work along with the exhaustion that comes with it. And Gyllenhaal pulls off a spunky and eager single mother who makes no excuses and works hard to survive and make the ends meet for her family. In addition to a strong main cast, the supporting cast brings an additional dose of character poise. In an antagonistic role Holly Hunter who plays a Teacher Union administrator offers a true dose of reality. Also child stars Emily Alyn Lind and Dante Brown (Cody Alberts) deliver a child-like innocence that is convincing and refreshing.  The bravery that each of these characters embodies is quite incredible. Whether they were for the creation of a new “dream” school, or whether they stand by the principles laid out in the Teacher’s Union each party stood their ground. Regardless of what side you take one could be compelled to go either direction.

Despite this being a compelling film with good intentions, Won’t Back Down does offer somewhat awkward character moments and a few trivial storylines. This was probably done to add another dimension to the film. Overall, Won’t Back Down is just many other reform stories that we have seen before in many previous films. Even with this being an enjoyable film, I begin to wonder if Hollywood is capable of creating an original story and not a modern day version of Waiting for Superman. However the film is fitting and appropriate considering the recent Teacher’s Strike events in Chicago, IL. 

This film offers a clear message that even with struggles, success can still find its way through. And herein lies an amazing story of what happens when a community commits to a predicament and takes every measure to find a solution. By the end of the film, you can’t help but feel motivated by the strong will and passion that comes from the characters and the story they put on the screen. Won’t Back Down is the type of film that brings an extraordinary message of empowerment and determination, as well as the ability to wake up the sleeping masses. All in all, this film that exhibits what true parenthood, friendship, courage, and hope is through the eyes of dedicated parents, teachers, and community advocates from across the nation. In essence, they “Won’t Back Down!”

Rating: 7.5 out 10 stars

'Waiting for Superman' won't fly with some audiences

Every now and then I like to showcase film reviews from other intelligent individuals, because there review pretty much "hits the nail on the head"!! This review is submitted by a good friend of mine R. L'Heureux Lewis. And hopefully after reading this article/review you wilh have another perspective of today's education system.

In this film publicity image released by Paramount Pictures, Geoffrey Canada, standing, is shown in a scene from, "Waiting for 'Superman'." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures)

'Waiting for Superman' won't fly with some audiences

By R. L'Heureux Lewis

Waiting for Superman is a powerful film about educational reform and the potential of our schools from the same team that brought us by director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott, the Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Unfortunately the filmmakers leave the audience hoping for a change that is as likely as a caped crusader appearing in real life.

While the film taps into the concerns that many of us have towards a failing educational system, it fails to provide a full portrait of what is really happening in the nation's schools. If you're interested in heart wrenching stories, see this film. But if you are interested in changing education make sure you bring your x-ray vision so you can see beyond the veil of what the filmmakers are advocating.

The film opens with an interview of Anthony, a young black boy enrolled in a Washington, D.C. school. We learn that Anthony's father died years earlier from a possible drug overdose and his grandmother is now raising him in a poverty stricken neighborhood. With poise he answers math questions and in his eyes you see the glimmer of potential and high educational hopes. Unfortunately Anthony is slotted to attend a failing middle school that feeds into a high school nationally known as a "dropout factory" where 40 percent of students fail to graduate. This is an all too common reality many black, brown and poor students in the United States.
The happy ending to this story is to come by Anthony being rescued by an innovative new D.C. charter boarding school. The catch is that this salvation is only available to a few via a lottery. The lottery exists because when more people enroll in charter school than they can accommodate they must use a lottery system to determine admission. Guggenheim and filmmakers lament this point and stress "we know what works" but we leave success up to chance for our young people.

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The story of Anthony and the other families that are followed are touching but do not tell the full reality of schooling, particularly in charter schools. Behind the heart tugging narrative lies an inconvenient truth, that charter schools on average actually perform no better than traditional public schools and often perform worse! In the nearly two-hour film this reality is tucked in a sound bite where the film confesses only 1 in 5 charter schools is excelling. Yes, you read that right, 80 percent of charter schools do no better or fare worse than traditional public schools. It is clear this research finding does not deter the filmmakers, but viewers should not be so quick to skip it. The Stanford's CREDO National Charter School Study has done the most comprehensive work on charter schools and found that they are far from a cure all for educational woes.

Waiting for Superman spares no punches as educational administrators and authors take shot after shot at blaming teacher unions for blocking educational reform. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek sums up a message the film is trying to get across, "Teachers are great, a national treasure. Teachers' unions are, generally speaking, a menace and an impediment to reform." The villains of the families are made clear when the presidents of the American Federation for Teachers and National Education Association enter the screen and ominous music forecasts their discussion of securing teacher's jobs which is equated to sabotaging masses of children who will be saddled with poor quality teachers.

Repeatedly we are reminded that the United States ranked 15th in reading and 24th in math in comparison to other developed nations. The answer to this dilemma is to free up our schools from the albatross of teacher unions and bureaucratic red tape. Sounds good, right? The only problem is that nearly every country that ranks above the US enjoys a unionized teaching force.

Unions cannot and should not be the scapegoats for educational failure. Beyond challenging unions, the film advocates for are evaluating teachers and a curriculum that guarantees college readiness, both of which are becoming increasingly common in public schools. Faster than a speeding bullet, Waiting for Superman ignores those realities to tell viewers that problems schools face are complex but successful reform is simple.
H. L. Mencken once said, "For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

The solutions offered to educational problems offered by Waiting for Superman fall into this trap. There is no magic bullet to repairing our schools; it will take a wide variety of schools, reformers, and communities. While we can all agree that education needs to be reformed, we cannot place our faith in a smidge of successful schools that cannot accommodate all children and have not demonstrated repeated success. We also cannot ignore the more numerous charter schools that do worse than the traditional public schools we already have. Doing so would be no different than waiting for a man in a cape and tights to save us.



You can follow R. L'Heureux Lewis on Twitter @dumilewis, or you can check him out on his website: http://www.uptownnotes.com/