Davis Guggenheim, the overshadowed director of An Inconvenient Truth, tackles another man-sized topic, American lower education, giving him much more to do than just to film a visually-aided lecture. He delivers his own personalized narration, includes footage from an earlier documentary of his, The First Year, digs up a clip of George W. Bush proclaiming optimistically, “Childrens [sic] do learn,” takes on the teachers’ union, finds a few heroes to follow, and homes in on four heart-tugging minority grade-schoolers as examples. He also leans, conventionally enough, on a rotation of talking heads, and he narrows his scope in open advocacy of charter schools (with an endorsement from no less than Bill Gates). The lottery climax — his four pet students in competition for limited spots in superior schools — is brutal. (2010) — Duncan Shepherd
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