Waiting for Superman is a well-made documentary on the state of our national education system, and it's not pretty. It gives shocking statistics to hit home just how bad our nation's youths are at literacy and math comprehension. It paints a picture in which the teachers are the good guys and the teachers' unions are the bad guys. In fact, when there are bad teachers, known even to the principals and superintendents, it reveals just how hard it is to fire them because of them holding "tenure," a watered-down version of the hard-earned university status. Any attempt at reform, either by promoting good teaching with incentives or even just replacing bad teachers with "mediocre" ones, is almost instantly struck down by the unions who want to keep the status quo. The film is disheartening to say the least, but it does give a glimmer of hope. That hope is the public charter school, created as an entity free from the local regulatory boards, with very impressive results. But they produce another problem: more students want to go than there's room for. And the solution is less than ideal: a random lottery drawing to select each year's class.
The film weaves its way across the nation as it tracks several children's perspectives and aspirations and the parents that push their hardest to provide the best education possible. Only in the second half of the film do we realize that they are all applying to various public charter schools. The climax of the film takes place in the gyms and auditoriums of each school's lottery. The movie documents the breathless anticipation of the children and their families. There are some very tender and touching scenes, as only real life can deliver.
As a documentary, the film certainly favors substance over form. This is a good thing if you're making the movie to provide easy-to-digest information, but a bad thing for anyone hoping for something more than a tutorial or editorial. As far as the directing goes, I found it somewhat self-indulgent. Mr. Guggenheim never hesitates to give his own personal thoughts or play footage from his previous film. Still, this movie brings up an important and timely topic and should, if nothing else, provide a springboard to discuss the issues. If we're lucky, it might even spark some more vigorous reform efforts.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/