NMR: Doc time

Here's a pair of recent documentaries I've caught through Netflix:

Waiting for Superman: Anyone who is a teacher or has children in public education really should see this. It attempts to investigate the problems with our failing schools and the approaches we can take to fix them. Some of the director's arguments are controversial - he is rather critical of teacher unions - but I rather he take that approach than just waffle and have no voice at all. I recognize that with the economy and foreign wars there are a lot of pressing issues that this country needs to face, but this is one that deserves more of our attention. The film certainly isn't perfect. Aside from the director's opinions, I didn't feel that the individual stories of certain children he included in the film really added anything. This is one time where I feel the logos should have dominated the film instead of pathos. Still, the film's topic is so important that I really hope that a lot of people watch this documentary so that more people can begin discussing this issue and hopefuly get it resolved to help save our children and their future. Rating: ****

Freakonomics: Based on the wildly popular nonfiction book, this film takes five ideas from the book and tries to illustrate them further. The ideas are seperated into segments, each directed by renowed documentary filmmaker. The quality of the segments are wildly uneven unfortunately. The one on cheating in sumo wrestling was deathly dull, while Morgan Spurlock's examination on the importance of the name given to a child is fun, but seemingly pointless. The most interesting things to come out of the film are really the core arguments that can be found in the book itself. Apparently, nonfiction books have no better success at begin adapted for the screen than novels do. For those that have read the book, this may be a mildly amusing extension of the authors' ideas. For those who haven't read the book, skip the film and just go to the library and rent this engaging read instead. Rating: ***