sunny s
A clear narrative, coupled with shots that never last for more than a minute mean a very dynamic and honest story about the young adults of America. The documentary really subverted audience expectations. Accepted didn't shy away from the dark and sober angles. The students we followed were so thoughtful and expressive, that their wins and losses feel like yours too. Dan Chen and Accepted's crew did an awesome job!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/12/23
Full Review
dave d
Dan Chen's first documentary feature proves he is a filmmaker to watch. A complicated movie about the T.M. Landry school in Louisiana where the founders are hoping to raise the profile of impoverished minorities. When the media goes from fawning to critical the founders stop allowing filming. Then the Varsity Blues scandal happens which makes things ever more complex. It is a rare doc where it makes you think and should stay with you. You will want to ask an educator if they have heard of the school and if so, what they think of the process. Chen does a fantastic even-handed job of illustrating the pros and cons from several different angles, therefore allowing the viewer to make a judgement call. Final Score: 8.8/10
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
05/27/23
Full Review
david f
This is a great documentary about a small school in Louisiana that achieved great renown in the media through posting short videos of its underdog students finding out they'd been accepted to college - in many cases elite Ivy League schools. Following its fame, however, a New York Times expose revealed dishonest transcripts and abuse at the school and the house of cards began to tumble down. Best part: in the earlier part of the movie, before the school is exposed as a fraud, there's a scene with head of the school, Mike Landry, in his home in the evening getting calls from students asking him to help them solve math problems, which he does. Later in the movie, after the fraud is exposed, the kid who called him was like, when you were filming him, he asked me to call him in the evening and ask for homework help. It really drew back the curtain on what was going on behind the scenes while the documentary was being made and showed how he perpetrated his con.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
SUCH a great movie! Should be required viewing for everyone. In depth depiction of the US Education system and the myth of meritocracy.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Callison D
Interesting and informative look at a school run by a man (and his wife) whose passion and dedication towards his students' success knew no limits. In order that he could help students rise above stereotypes, he pushed them to get them into elite universities, due to his own family trauma. The saddest thing about this film is that one day, when they are 50, the students who left Landry's school and decided to cry and complain about him in this film, will look back and realize he was the best thing that ever happened to them. It's really sad their navite and overly idealist idea of how the world should be doesn't jive with reality. Hopefully someone will fund Mike so he can continue to make great kids greater, and get the recognition they deserve in a world that is the way it is. So what they had to kneel? My second grade teachers at private selementary chool used to grab children by their throats and pull them up in th the air. It was traumatic. . I couldn't wait to get out of that school. And yet, I dont see any films about that. Padded the transcipts a bit? Created new clubs? This movie doesn't really get into details about the extent of these accusations. I am sure he didn't fake thier ACT scores, like the Varisty Blues did. More people need to support Mike Landry. Boo Hoo to the whiners in the film. How sad they are. Probably be taking care of their families today if they had stayed at Landry. Great that this film was made. Interesting look at our society.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/14/22
Full Review
ranny l
Accepted offers a unique and intriguing look at the world of selective college admissions in the US; it shows the cost of climbing the social ladder through education and the extent to which people will go to get to the ranks of the country's intelligentsia.
T.M. Landry College Preparatory is an unconventional K-12 school in a poor rural town in Louisiana famous for sending its students to elite universities like Harvard, Yale, Wellesley and Stanford. Students aim to meet the intense expectations of Mike Landry, the imposing, relentless, rousing-speech-giving founder of the school who has a personal and professional stake in the process. When the New York Times publishes an exposé on T.M. Landry falsifying student transcripts and its controversial and, at-times, abusive methods, the school crumbles. Each senior has to figure out school and the college admissions system on their own from there, and they have to decide for themselves what they are willing to do to get into college.
In his first documentary, director Dan Chen beautifully captures the personal stories of four dynamic students looking to overcome the seemingly insuperable obstacles they face to achieve their dreams. One, for example, has a widowed mother and two disabled sisters, and she must care for them while balancing an 11-hour school day at T.M. Landry. The interviews of the four seniors guide the film, as does interwoven footage of Landry working with students, hyping them up, and continuing his work at home. The film is incredibly well-constructed — holes in T.M. Landry's story are reflected in the plot (such as when it is revealed that Mike Landry told one of his students to call him when the filming team came to his house so he could project the image of a caring, fatherly figure). The footage is stable; lighting is modulated to reflect the mood of each scene (dark in times of despair, bright in times of hope), and the storytelling is seamless. Accepted keeps your attention throughout; there's not a single dull moment. As a student going through the admissions process right now (albeit with a very different background and very different schools than those in the film), Accepted resonates with me on an emotional level at various points. It's one of the best traditional documentaries I've watched this year.
Accepted is a film all about finding success with honesty and hard work. Where T.M. Landry fails, as a student says, is that they set out to solve the problem of a ridiculously selective university system, but became a part of the problem by falsifying records and losing integrity.
I give Accepted 5 stars out of 5 and recommend if for ages 13 to 18, plus adults. Accepted releases July 1, 2022 in theaters and on demand. By Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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