Snow White is a classic story by the Brothers Grimm that’s old enough to be in the public domain, so there are several adaptations of the tale. Disney would like you to believe theirs is the authoritative release (although apparently not enough to take it out of “the vault” to actually offer it for sale), but there are at least dozens of other versions of the story. In fact, one of the trailers before Mirror Mirror was for Snow White and the Huntsman, scheduled for release this June. If there is to be room for another telling of this story, then it needs to provide some unique perspective, and the UK version of the film is marketed as “Mirror Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White“, so I was foolish enough to believe that they might bring something new to the table. But it’s primarily just a retelling of the traditional story.

In this version, Lily Collins plays Snow White, a princess whose father the king (played by Sean Bean) is beloved by everyone. Her mother died in childbirth, and while her father provided her with everything she could ever hope for, he realized the need for a female influence in her life, and he eventually married a new queen (Julia Roberts) to fill that role. But as characters played by Sean Bean are wont to do, the king met his end in the forest surrounding the castle and the queen took control of the land. This should have been just a temporary arrangement until Snow White was old enough to succeed her father, but the queen loved her power, loved keeping Snow White locked in her room, and loved throwing lavish parties using tax money collected from her subjects.

When she turned 18, Snow White managed to escape from her room and made her way out of the castle, where she was shocked to learn about what a dismal place the kingdom had become. She was also surprised to encounter a couple of men who had been tied up and robbed by bandits. She would later learn that the better looking of the two men was a prince from another land (played by Arnie Hammer), and the bandits were actually dwarves (who disguised themselves and wore stilts) that had been scorned by the queen. When the queen learned of Snow White’s expedition and the effect she had on the prince, she decided to send Snow White to her death and take the prince for herself.

Even if it shares much of the story, Mirror Mirror isn’t just a live-action version of the Disney cartoon. For example, the dwarves have different names (Butcher, Chuckles, Grimm, Grub, Half Pint, Napoleon, and Wolf), and Snow White isn’t fed a poisoned apple. It’s also hard to believe that even a magic mirror would consider Julia Roberts prettier than Lily Collins, although perhaps it was just being respectful until she was 18. But the differences aren’t so substantial as to warrant yet another version of the story. And because you know pretty much exactly what’s coming, there’s very little excitement to be had, and it makes some lame but ultimately unsuccessful attempts at comedy. There’s really no compelling reason to watch the film, but if you do want to see it then I doubt it would lose anything significant by waiting to see it on the small screen.

I was excited for The Cabin in the Woods like no movie before it. When it first played at Buttnumbathon last year, I didn’t hear a single comment about it that was anything less than over-the-top enthusiasm, and the trend continued through its official premiere at the SxSW film festival in March. I wanted to go into the movie as pure as possible, so I avoided all discussion of it, and even took to leaving the theater if they played its trailer before some other movie. When Mondo announced a special screening of the movie, I jumped at the chance to see the movie before its Friday the 13th release date not because I get any real extra pleasure from seeing a movie early or even because of the poster (although it’s pretty great, too), but because it would relieve me from a week of vigilance against potential spoilers. And after seeing the film, I can appreciate how hard it is to say something about it without spoiling anything. I’ll do my best to be interesting without ruining anything, but you’d be best served by just going to see the movie before learning anything about it). You won’t be disappointed.

On the surface, it’s an extremely cliché take on the theme for which it is named. It features five students (a jock, a nerd, a stoner, a slutty girl, and an innocent girl) who pile into a Winnebago and head out into the wilderness where there’s no cell phone reception and no one around for miles. They of course make a stop at a creepy gas station with a creepy attendant who doesn’t like outsiders before the final leg of their journey into complete isolation. And when they finally arrive at the rickety old cabin there’s the usual disappointment with the quality of the accommodations and the usual discussion of sleeping arrangements. There’s swimming and drinking and smoking of pot and flirting before the real stuff starts to happen. It’s the kind of thing you’ve seen in every Friday the 13th movie and everything inspired by that theme since then like Cabin Fever and Pumpkinhead. But all of this is done in what is kind of a tongue-in-cheek manner, and the rest of the film is decidedly not a rip off of the same old story.

I rarely find anything in movies scary, so I’m not really the best judge of whether a horror movie is scary or not, but I don’t think that there’s really anything in The Cabin in the Woods that will cause your skin to crawl if you’re familiar with other stories with this kind of setting. The violence and gore look good and are very satisfying, but you can see it all coming so that you’re prepared for it when it does arrive. However, that’s not to say that it’s boring or lacks entertainment value, because that is decidedly not true. Writer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the upcoming The Avengers) has a good amount of experience combining genres like horror and action and comedy, and that’s done with great effect here. Even if you aren’t scared by what is only a surface-level horror, you will be thoroughly engulfed in the story and constantly reacting to something.

It’s exceptionally difficult to explain what makes this movie so great without running the risk of spoiling something. However, this is not the kind of film that’s only good the first time and loses something the second time around when you know what’s going to happen. I know a few lucky people who’ve already gotten to see it a couple of times, and none of them are any less enthusiastic after their second viewing. I also don’t know anyone who’s already seen it once that isn’t chomping at the bit to see it again. I’ll definitely be seeing it again next weekend.

Apparently there’s something about salmon fishing that makes it more exciting or challenging or interesting than going after other kinds of fish. Maybe it’s got something to do with their habit of swimming upstream in order to spawn, but I’d think that would make it less challenging (since fish would be traveling more slowly upstream than they would be if they were headed downstream). There must be some reason that a Sheikh who already has plenty of access to other kinds of fishing in his native Yemen would want to invest a great deal of time and money to try to introduce salmon, but that’s something that will apparently remain a mystery.

Dr. Alfred Jones (played by Ewan McGregor) is a very straight-laced man, even by British terms. He has a very dry sense of humor, is in a passionless marriage with Mary (Rachael Stirling), and is a government ichthyologist by trade and fisherman by hobby. On the other hand, while Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) has an extremely British-sounding name, her personality is less subdued than you’d expect for someone with that name. She slept with her new boyfriend Robert (Tom Mison) on the first date, never seems to get discouraged, and works for an agency that represents the extremely wealthy Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked).

Harriet and Alfred are brought together when she conveys the Sheikh’s desire to bring salmon fishing to his native country, and Alfred immediately (and sensibly) rejects it as a completely ludicrous idea. However, others higher up in the British government hear of the idea and see it as a potential way to improve British-Arab relations, particularly as their participation with the US in the war in Afghanistan is not well received by all (including Harriet, since Robert’s army unit was recently deployed there, taking him away from her). Alfred receives pressure from his superiors to try to make the idea a reality. The Sheikh’s willingness to spend absurd amounts of money (including to double Alfred’s salary, and to spare no expense in any other part of the endeavor) and Alfred’s ability to work in close proximity with Harriet for the duration of the project helped soften the sting of being ordered to do this idiotic thing, but even under the best conditions, he didn’t have much reason to believe it would actually work.

It seems that the film is based on a novel by Paul Torday, and as far as I can tell, it’s purely fictional. But that’s a little hard to believe because I can’t imagine that anyone would come up with a story this lame when there are so many ways they could improve upon the plot. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to place so much emphasis on salmon fishing when there’s ready access to other kinds of fish and no explanation as to what makes salmon better. It doesn’t seem realistic that Harriet would be so completely hung up on Robert when they’ve only known each other for three weeks and there’s no telling how long he’ll be gone, when they could’ve just as easily made their relationship last for months or years It’s hard to see the Sheikh as a generous man who wants to help his fellow countrymen with this project when there’s so much wasted money for so little benefit (and what benefit there is may only be enjoyed by a small number of individuals), and that’s only on the off-chance that the idea actually works.

In addition to the lack of credibility, the film also suffers from a lack of depth. There are more serious issues in the movie than the Sheikh’s fishing options, but they’re either so obvious or so ridiculous that it’s hard to care about them. It’s not an outstanding romantic drama, and there are far better British political comedies like In The Loop, Four Lions, and The Guard. It’s not so much that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a bad movie as it is simply not a good one.

When I went into Norwegian Wood, I knew almost nothing about it. I knew that it was a Japanese movie (based on a rather popular book, which I haven’t read), and I was vaguely familiar that its title was also the title of a Beatles song. I foolishly allowed myself to think that perhaps the film would be similar to Golden Slumber (an excellent Japanese movie that shares its title with a Beatles song) or Fish Story (an excellent Japanese Movie whose title is also the title of a song featured prominently in the movie). That was not a good assumption.

Watanabe, Kizuki, and Naoko were like three peas in a pod when they were growing up, but when Kizuki and Naoko started dating, they still hung out with Watanabe but he was kind of a third wheel. When Kizuki committed suicide, both Watanabe and Naoko were devastated, and they kind of went their separate ways. But after they run into each other in a Tokyo park, they rekindle their relationship and start to get together again on a regular basis. On Naoko’s 20th birthday, their celebration turns amorous, and they make love. But being a typically insensitive guy, Watanabe manages to upset Naoko and she needs some time away from Watanabe and from the memories of Kizuki that accompany him.

Months later, Watanabe receives word from Naoko and learns that she has checked herself into a kind of mental health commune where she’s had some time to think things through. She is ready to declare her love for Watanabe, but not her sanity, so she is to stay at the treatment center, where all visits must be chaperoned (although they’re apparently really bad about enforcing that). But all this time away from Naoko has made Watanabe realize his interest in another woman (Midori, who also has a boyfriend, but neither of them see their current dysfunctional relationships as a significant hindrance to their own satisfaction), and Watanabe’s roommate Nagasawa doesn’t set the best example with his own constant cheating.

If I did have to compare Norwegian Wood to another movie, I’d say that it seemed pretty similar to last year’s Like Crazy. Both feature overly-emotional young adults who can’t seem to tie themselves to just one person and, and I found myself unable to sympathize with the protagonists for either film when they are bemoaning their situation when it is mostly of their own creation.

I found it very hard to get pulled into the story, in part because the suicide near the beginning of the film comes out of nowhere and is left completely unexplained, but mostly because the film progressed very slowly and without any kind of real reward for the viewer. I couldn’t really relate to any of the characters or to their problems, and it didn’t give me much incentive to try.

Every so often, a movie comes along that can’t be adequately described using mere words. The Raid: Redemption is one of those films. The best I can say is that if you like violent action movies, then go see this one.

At its core, it’s a “storming the castle” film. The castle in this case is a plain-looking cement high-rise which serves as a low-rent apartment complex for what must be hundreds of people, but it’s also the not-so-secret headquarters of a huge drug manufacturing and trafficking operation, run by Tama, his henchmen Andi and Mad Dog, and tons of underlings. The residents all know what’s really going on in the building, but fear of Tama and fear of homelessness cause them to at least turn a blind eye to the less legal parts of the operation, and some of them actively try to get in Tama’s good graces by tipping his people off if they see something suspicious. And a large SWAT team amassing outside the gate certainly qualifies.

The bust has been orchestrated by Lieutenant Wahyu (played by Pierre Gruno, who must be at least a distant cousin of G.W. Bailey) and is being led by Wahyu along with Sergeants Rama and Jaka. A lot of the men they brought along are pretty young and inexperienced, but hopefully numbers and firepower will help them out. Unfortunately, they don’t have the advantage in either of those categories, since Tama has a lot of enemies on both sides of the law and this isn’t the first time he’s come under attack. His men are very well armed, have lots of experience, and aren’t hindered by conscience or a need to adhere to the law. But then again, Wahyu isn’t all that concerned with the law himself, since he didn’t bother to get any kind of authorization for this mission, so there’s not going to be any backup if they get themselves into a jam.

There are a few points in the film that are a little light on action, but not many more than absolutely necessary to craft the story for the film. But the rest of the time is full-on hard-core ultraviolence. There are a lot of casualties, and there are a lot of skilled fighters creating interesting ways for those casualties to occur. There’s plenty of gunplay, but there’s also a lot of hand-to-hand (and every other body part to every other body part) combat, and several instances of such awesome brutality that the audience (and I’d strongly recommend seeing it in a packed theater) can’t help but gasp and in unison as an expression of simultaneous disgust and approval. Given that everything happens in a packed apartment building, there are plenty of hallway fight scenes, and some of them rival and perhaps even surpass the infamous Oldboy corridor battle. In fact, the movie is almost a kind of feature-length version of that.

I was both awed and slightly disappointed by film’s climax. It’s obvious pretty early on that there’s going to be a big showdown at the end, but given how much awesome action occurred throughout the movie there’s no way that the climax could match the splendor of what came earlier. And then it did. But then they followed that up with a little too much “wrapping up the story” so that some of the excitement has dissipated by the time the credits start to roll. But if you watch the credits then you can see the sheer number of actors/fighters and the awesome descriptions given to their nameless characters, and you can immediately re-live those scenes in your mind.

I don’t really understand why they chose to tack the word “redemption” onto the title for the U.S. release, since it’s just called The Raid everywhere else, and there’s really not much redemption to be found in the story. But this is a film that’s so incredible to just watch and absorb that you shouldn’t spoil it by trying to think too much about those kinds of trivial details.

In the United States, it’s not unusual to find great food in tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurants. There’s some incredible barbecue served out of tiny shacks, and some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten have come from a small gas station. But Jiro Ono has taken this to another level. He’s created a world-class sushi restaurant in a small shop right next to the bathroom in a Tokyo subway station.

At 85 years old, Jiro is the oldest chef ever to receive the highest culinary rating of three Michelin stars, and he’s also the first sushi chef to receive that honor. His restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, only has ten seats, and you have to book your reservation a month in advance. But because service is fast-paced, and because you should eat the sushi immediately as soon as it’s presented for the best possible flavor, it’s not unusual for your $350+ meal to last only 15 minutes. They only serve sushi, so you shouldn’t go there if you want a variety of food or relaxed conversation, but if you go there for the sushi, then you’ll probably not walk away disappointed.

There’s nothing particularly magical about the way that Jiro is able to create this incredible food. He uses techniques that are fairly well known and the best ingredients he can find, but it’s his experience and dedication to quality that makes all the difference. He started as a sushi chef’s apprentice at age ten, and has been in the business of making sushi for three quarters of a century. Jiro’s routine hasn’t changed much in decades (although he now lets his eldest son Yoshikazu go to the fish market ever since Jiro’s heart attack at age 70), and he’s still up before dawn and stays at it until well after dark every night. Yoshikazu will take over in his father’s footsteps when Jiro is no longer able to run the business, but the way things are going now, that may still be several years away.

This is a fascinating documentary that is mostly as simple and minimalist as the sushi and the chefs that it features. You’re not going to find impressive graphics or animation, nor will you be bombarded with statistics or mountains of data. You’ll see men who love what they do and have worked hard to get where they are, and yet are still not satisfied with whatever level of success and notoriety they have achieved.

If there is a flaw in the documentary, it is that even with a short runtime of only 81 minutes, it doesn’t always stay as focused as it should. There’s an unusually long segment during which we’re simply watching men working at a fish market without any interaction from Jiro or Yoshikazu, and later in the film we take a trip with Jiro to his hometown in which nothing happens that’s really got any relation to food or the restaurant. While the purpose of this trip is likely to help humanize Jiro, that’s not something that’s even remotely necessary because he already comes off as one of the most genuine and firmly-grounded people you can imagine, in addition to being an upbeat and completely adorable perfectionist. While his skill may put him at the very top of the elites in the sushi world, his personality probably also ranks him among the top in terms of relatability and likeability.

I often imagine myself as a better writer than I really am. It’s often a case of me simply not proofreading what I write, because when I read it in my head, I often “hear” things that don’t flow well or encounter stupid mistakes. If I were to spend more time reading what I write before posting it, then I’d probably come off sounding a lot better, but even still I wouldn’t be surprised if I overestimate myself at least some of the time.

But Jonathan Flynn (played by Robert De Niro) does not have any doubts at all about his writing abilities. He’s quite certain that he’s one of the greatest writers in American history. He’s never had anything published, but he once got a very encouraging rejection letter that said he just wasn’t right for their audience, which is clearly more a reflection on the publisher than on his skill. But until some publisher wakes up and realizes what they’re missing, Jonathan is stuck behind the wheel of a cab. He may have some issues with racism and some of his customers are a little intimidated by the nail-spiked baseball bat he carries as a weapon, but it’s steady income. And after a somewhat threatening dispute with his inconsiderate landlord, Jonathan’s cab also becomes his home. Of course, a taxi doesn’t make for the most comfortable lodging, so he’s tired all the time and when he falls asleep at the wheel, he gets into an accident that ultimately leads to him losing his license and his job and his home.

Jonathan also wasn’t going to win any awards for great parenting. He abandoned his wife Jody (Julianne Moore) and son Nick (Paul Dano) 18 years ago, and although he wrote letters occasionally (sometimes from jail), they basically lived their lives without him. But after his mom committed suicide, Nick found himself kind of wandering aimlessly through life. He had a little money so that he didn’t have to work, but he felt that he needed some kind of direction. When a friend suggested that he come work for a nearby homeless shelter, he took them up on it and found it suited him well. His work required him to interact with all kinds of people with all kinds of physical and mental conditions, so he quickly became adept at dealing with whatever might pop up. But he wasn’t really prepared to see his father show up one night as a guest at the shelter.

I knew the kind of subject matter that Being Flynn dealt with going into the movie, so I was prepared for something of a downer, but I really wasn’t ready for just how dark things get in this film. There is occasional humor, but even that is generally something that provides amusement but doesn’t really lighten the mood. And where the father’s behavior could be at least partially explained by mental illness, it is the frustration of the obviously-bad choices made by the ostensibly sane son that I think really did me in.

But despite its effect on my overall mood, I was a little disappointed with the content. It moves pretty slowly in the middle, taking more time than necessary to show the that both Jonathan and Nick were facing, and although it was an important element in Nick’s life, I think that the film spends too much time on his relationship with his mother at various points in his life. But it’s the end of the film that really feels out of place to me. It had such an abrupt change in tone that I was left kind wondering what happened, and because it also felt unearned I found myself kind of numbed to the emotional impact the film had over me to that point. Nevertheless, I’m glad that I got to follow this movie with three great comedies I’d already seen before so that I wasn’t stuck in a funk for the rest of the day.

I never got into the Harry Potter phenomenon, either by reading the books or watching the movies. I never read any of the Twilight books, and only saw two of the movies when they were being made fun of by Austin’s Master Pancake Theater comedy troupe. And even though I saw all of the Lord of the Rings films, I didn’t really find them particularly enjoyable. But I can’t deny that I’ve read all three of the books in The Hunger Games series, or that I went to the first film’s midnight opening (along with virtually every teenage girl in the city). Unfortunately, although I went in with cautious optimism, I left with a little disappointment.

About seventy-five years ago, the nation of Panem was divided into thirteen districts and a capital city. But when the districts rebelled against the capital, a nasty war broke out and when the dust cleared the capital emerged the victor. District 13 had been completely destroyed, and the remaining twelve were subject to even greater hardship than they had known in the past. Most people are just barely able to scrape by, and it’s driven young Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) to supplement her family’s meager rations by venturing out into the forbidden territory beyond her District 12 border to engage in illegal hunting.

As a reminder of and punishment for their insolence, each year the capital puts on a brutal sporting event they call The Hunger Games. Each of the districts is required to supply one boy and one girl to be placed into a dangerous arena filled with all kinds of nasty creatures and deadly traps, and they are compelled to fight to the death using capital-supplied weapons and their own strength and ingenuity. These “tributes” are usually selected at a raffle called The Reaping, but when her sister Prim’s name was called, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) was the boy who was chosen, and because no one offered to take his place, he would be accompanying Katniss to the capital before being sent into battle.

It would be difficult for any film to live up to the anticipation generated around The Hunger Games, but certainly this one could have made a better attempt than it did. Since it’s based on a novel targeted toward the young adult audience (although I know many not-so-young adults who’ve also read it), it makes sense that the film has a PG-13 rating, but it’s also unfortunate because it means that the time spent in the arena is much less satisfying than it could have been, and it never approaches the brutality contained in the R-rated Japanese kids-killing-kids-in-an-arena movie Battle Royale. But surprisingly, it also really plays down the romantic aspects of the time Katniss and Peeta spent in the arena, and I’d expect the teen girls would’ve eaten that up.

The disappointment of what happens in the arena is matched by what happens before that. The film is just over 140 minutes long, but we don’t even see the arena until 70 minutes in, and that creates some serious pacing problems. If you’ve read the book, then you’ll find that you’re spending most of your time waiting for what you already know is coming, and then when it arrives, it’s not quite as good as you’d imagined it. The camera operator for the opening scenes in District 12 apparently suffers from some kind of neurological disorder because they couldn’t have been any shakier if they’d been filmed from aboard a small boat on rough seas. Fortunately, they managed to find a steadicam about the time that contestants boarded the train for the capital, so we don’t have to watch the whole movie that way, but if you’re susceptible to motion sickness, then some Dramamine might be a good precautionary measure.

There are plenty of other problems with the movie. There are a lot of times in which they deviate from the book for no good reason and without making any improvement to the source material (e.g., the explanation of how Katniss got the mockingjay pin). There are also elements of the story that you’ll understand if you’ve read the books, but that are kind of left unexplored in the film adaptation. Even something as basic as the name of one of the significant characters in the first half (Effie Trinket, as portrayed by Elizabeth Banks) is completely omitted. The climax isn’t nearly as climactic in the movie as the book, and many elements are much better left to the imagination than to have them shown to you.

If you saw and enjoyed The Hunger Games movie before reading the book, then the book will probably make it even better for you. On the other hand, if you’ve got the book fresh in your mind, then you might be better off skipping the film because it’s just not going to live up to what you imagined for yourself. And if you want more gore and less teen angst, then check out Battle Royale.

For some reason, dreaming kind of freaks me out. I don’t often remember my dreams, but when I do it’s often because I was abruptly woken in the middle of them, and a lot of the time when that happens there’s a brief period of confusion in which I’m not sure what’s real and what was dreamed. On more than one occasion by the time that I’m fully conscious and aware of my surroundings, I’ve found myself out of bed and reacting to something that wasn’t there. The idea that something like this could happen while completely unconscious, and potentially without even any memory of it, is something that I find completely terrifying. And this movie didn’t help me with that fear.

Matt (played by Mike Birbiglia, who also wrote and directed the movie) badly wants to be a stand-up comedian, but so far he’s only managed to get a job as a bartender at a comedy club where he occasionally gets to do a couple of minutes between the real comedians. The couple of times that he’s had any kind of real shot at a brief routine, he’s bombed pretty spectacularly. His father Frank (James Rebhorn) has no confidence in his abilities and is openly hostile about the way he’s throwing away his life, and his mother Linda (Carol Kane) is mainly concerned about when he’s going to marry his longtime girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) and give her some grandchildren. Abby is about the only one who’s completely behind Matt, but she shares some of Linda’s concerns about their future.

All of this uncertainty about his future creates a bit of tension in Matt, and one night it manifests itself in the form of him acting out a dream. It was fairly benign, with him thinking that the clothes hamper was a jackal, and everyone had a good laugh about it. But when it happened a second time, with him believing he’d won an Olympic medal and then falling off the “award podium”, people started to get concerned and suggest that he go see a doctor. But Matt shrugged it off, hoping that his now burgeoning success would eliminate the tension causing this unusual nighttime behavior.

Sleepwalk with Me is one of those movies that is a joy to watch even when it’s depicting things that aren’t so pleasant. It’s got a lot of great dry humor, including a brief scene with Marc Maron and a frustratingly-short segment in which we hear Mitch Hedberg on the television, and even when the jokes are biting and create an ominous glimpse at unpleasantness to come, you’re still completely on board. Most films portraying characters making obviously-bad choices reach a point at which they become frustrating to watch, but somehow this movie finds a way to avoid that.

It’s a pretty short movie, but it progresses slowly enough that it doesn’t seem to fly by. On the other hand, there’s never a point at which it seems too long. There are a couple of scenes toward the end that could possibly benefit from the injection of a little more comedy, but I’m happy with it just the way it is.

In the ranks of junior high school popularity, members of the chess team are usually closer to the bottom than to the top. But Brooklyn’s I.S. 318 is no ordinary school. About 70 percent of its students’ families are living at or below the poverty level, but many of those same students are some of the best young chess players in the country. It probably helps that they have a thriving chess program and a dedicated chess teacher (Ms. Vicary) whose class students can take up to seven times a week, but the support of the parents is also critical, both to help encourage their kids to do well, but also to ensure that chess doesn’t get in the way of their other work.

This documentary is a kind of “a year in the life” look at the school and a number of its students and faculty members, and while it primarily focuses on activity during the school year, it actually spans parts of consecutive years than focusing entirely on one. This is an interesting approach, because it means that not only do we get to see the existing 6th and 7th grade students return for the next year, but we also see a new round of 6th graders coming in, and 8th graders promoted to high school. Rochelle is one such graduating student, and not only does she have the pressure of being one of the highest-rated chess junior players in the nation and a good chance of becoming the first ever female African-American to achieve a “master” rating, but she also has to worry about which high school she will get into. It seems that New York high schools have an admissions process similar to colleges, often including entrance exams where a single bad day could have a significant effect on opportunities that may be available to them in the future.

On the other end of the spectrum, Justus is an incoming sixth grader who is something of a phenomenon and has already reached the “expert” level by age ten. For him, one of the benefits the chess training can provide is a boost of maturity, since although he’s a great player, his confidence is easily shaken and he needs to learn how to brush off a loss and come back strong. And for some students like Patrick who suffer from ADHD and find it hard to focus for extensive periods of time, the discipline of chess might just help trick their minds into learning new behaviors and gaining increased concentration.

While the film’s primary focus is on the people, it also gives us occasional glimpses into the economics of education, and we see the dangers of ever-decreasing budgets that threaten to weaken or eliminate academic programs like chess and music, as well as non-academic extracurriculars like sports. This aspect of the film is remarkable not because of the dangers they face, but because of the reactions of the students and the community. As the poverty-stricken parents are asked to bear an increasingly-larger share of the costs of these programs, it’s not hard to see why the American educational system is falling behind programs in countries all over the world. I certainly think that they’d disagree with the assertion made in Waiting for Superman that larger budgets don’t result in better educational opportunities.

While the film is mostly enjoyable, it does seem to become a bit repetitive near the end, which makes it feel a bit too long. It also occasionally floods you with statistics that are hard to assimilate quickly enough, and it is sometimes confusing as to whether the data given represent final results or in-progress information. But the main points of the film come across clearly, and you’re not likely to walk away disappointed.