• The 15 greatest mustaches in Coen brothers history. [Vulture]
• The Gurus o’ Gold get their last licks in before the new year. [Movie City News]
• Betsy Sharkey writes up the 10 most overlooked films of 2010, and yes, it’s a valid point to put the nearly $300 million worldwide grosser “Shutter Island” on there. [Los Angeles Times]
Following on the heels of that “Waiting for Superman” item this morning, I have a clip of Madeleine Sackler’s “The Lottery” to share.
“The Lottery” hit theaters back in May to little fanfare but the publicity machine is swinging behind it as we cross into awards season territory. The film focuses on the lottery scenario depicted briefly at the end of “Waiting for Superman” (for the purposes of entering a charter school, which was the subject of Diane Ravitch’s ire in that piece earlier). While detailing union resistance as part of the debate it also focuses on the community debate over building space for charter schools versus zoned public schools and explores that specific issue a bit more in depth (with eye-popping revelations about charter protests).
To put the clip in context, Eva Moskowitz of the Success Charter Network is presenting the benefits of a charter school system to elected officials stonewalling her cause. It’s from a larger segment, the juiciest scene of the film. Check it out after the jump.
When I saw Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman” at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June, I noted that “the film casts a broad net when it would have been something more as a focused study” and that “modest stretching to make the point” dilutes the overall impact of the film. However, I also made it clear that while not entirely successful as a work of art, it’s certainly worth applauding as a work of activism.
Well, Diane Ravitch at The New York Review of Books isn’t nearly as forgiving. In a piece called “The Myth of Charter Schools,” Ravitch takes Guggenheim’s film to the cleaners, attacking its depiction of charter schools and denouncing privatized education as the answer to a struggling public school system. She also mentions similar docs released this year — “The Cartel” and “The Lottery” — but mainly, Ravitch dives into the facts and figures to disassemble seemingly every frame of Guggenheim’s film.