Freedom Writers

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Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

kooyah wrote:Because of your review, Big Magilla, I rented this recently. I know it's just a retread of previous schoolteacher movies like Dangerous Minds, but I've never seen any of those, so I figured even if Freedom Writers turned out to be crap, it'd at least be new crap for me. I'm not embarrassed to say that I really liked it. It was nothing incredible, but it really spoke to the teacher in me.
Cool. Thanks.
criddic3
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Post by criddic3 »

It really is surprisingly good, given all the familiarity with the genre. The acting makes it work. I happen to like this kind of movie, because it encourages learning and bettering ones self, although there are varying degrees of quality in each new version.

A few good ones include Stand and Deliver, Dead Poets Society and The Emporer's Club.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
kooyah
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Post by kooyah »

Because of your review, Big Magilla, I rented this recently. I know it's just a retread of previous schoolteacher movies like Dangerous Minds, but I've never seen any of those, so I figured even if Freedom Writers turned out to be crap, it'd at least be new crap for me. I'm not embarrassed to say that I really liked it. It was nothing incredible, but it really spoke to the teacher in me.
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

I didn't know what to expect of this. After seeing Hilary Swank all but self-destruct in The Black Dahlia I was ready to write her off as someone who has had more than her share of good fortune, but here she is playing one of those by now all too familiar inspirational teachers and doing it with such gumption and style it makes it fresh.

The film uses rap music the way Blackboard Jungle used early rock 'n' roll and To Sir, With Love used 60s British pop. True to formula, the naive teacher makes all the difference in the lives of her students who rise from the ghetto to make something of themselves, but the way she does it is unique and truly inspriing. Swank's forthrightness recalls no one so much as Julia Roberts' Erin Brockovich and her chief 2004 Oscar competitor, Imelda Staunton, evokes Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal as her nemesis.

The actors playing the kids are all good. Most are unknowns, though Mario is apparently well known as a rap artist and April Hernandez has had some success as a stand-up comic. Hunter Parrish is familiar as Mary Louise Parker's son on Weeds. Best of all, though, is Pat Carroll, best known as the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid, playing frail, 4'11'', then eighty something Miep Gies (she's 98 now) in a beautifully set up cameo that sends the film soaring to its emotional heights.

The one drawback is the portrayal of most of the men in the film as weak, uncaring twits, especially John Benjamin Hickey as a particualry nasty fellow teacher and Patrick Dempsey as Swank's sullen husband.
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