Critical Thinking

John Leguizamo's first film as a director is based on real events in Miami in 1998. Chess is taught as an elective at Miami Jackson High School, and the teacher Mario Martinez prepares his students for the national team championship. Most of them are Latino and Black, and the school stands in one of the poorest parts of the city. The film does not present chess as a fable of deliverance; the boys' troubles at home, the lack of money and the indifference of the school administration stay inside the story. Finding the money to travel to the tournament is shown as harder than the playing. Leguizamo also takes the teacher's role and avoids making the character an ideal figure. The team became the first inner-city high school squad in the country to win the championship. Who it's for: viewers who like school films based on true events. Who it's not for: anyone wanting to avoid the genre's familiar shape; the film follows it.