Fail State

2018

1h 34m

Documentary

List

83%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

69%

Audience Score

Fewer than 50 Ratings

An investigation into the dark side of higher education.

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Fandango at Home

Prime Video

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John Anderson

Wall Street Journal

Fail State is dense with information but incorporates just enough intimate, personal portraiture to make itself tragically human.

Dec 17, 2018

Full Review

John DeFore

Hollywood Reporter

Shebanow doesn't beat the point into the ground, but he does observe that stock prices for exploitative for-profit schools surged as soon as America elected the figurehead of Trump University to the White House.

Nov 9, 2018

Full Review

G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

Shebanow does an excellent job of laying out the sordid history of the decline of American higher educational systems in "Fail State"...

Rated: 3/4

Nov 7, 2018

Full Review

Phil Guie

Film-Forward.com

This is a serious and sober film, but what makes it engrossing are story lines that feel incredibly personal...

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2019

Full Review

Hunter Lanier

Film Threat

The ham-fisted approach undercuts the valuable information that makes up Fail State.

Rated: 5/10

Nov 6, 2018

Full Review

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

Overreaching, but damning.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 31, 2018

Full Review

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Audience Member

I think that this movie only gives half of the picture. I have earned almost a doctorate coming from an underprivileged white family. I had to work my tail off to prove myself. I went all the way to early retirement, and had been through many hoops. Most of the students I went to school with wanted a piece of paper and never did the work. In fact many of them never read the assignments and laughed at me, saying that I was wasting my time to do the work. The professors had college tests from 35 and 40 years ago.... And the students already knew the answers! The left-leaning professors tried to tell me what to think If you had another ideology you were most unwelcomed in the class. The government handed out money left and right to people who definitely did not deserve it. Also many students picked majors such as literature and art looking for a quick way out. Professors are way overpaid, and many of them should be banned from teaching. This movie does not accurately display how we got to this condition. Lobbyists, unions and lawmakers persist in handing out diplomas and making promises that they know that can never be kept. Finally, all the education in the world can't teach common sense. And that is why a college education cannot guarantee success. It is the blind leading the blind.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

s r

Raises some good questions, but certainly from one side. Any solutions to this mess would have been helpful.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An ABSOLUTE MUST SEE!! It's such a shame how these for profit colleges have made millions on the backs of our lowest socioeconomic class and veterans. Total shams.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A very important and well-made film about a topic not discussed often enough-- the erosion of the once noble higher education system in the United States. The film spells out how private interests were able to corrupt it into a money making system that favors investors over students, defrauding entire generations in order to get them into massive debt. Our grandparents had no student debt hanging over their generation. This generation has 44 million people suffering under 1.4 trillion in student loan debt and it is going to become the next major financial crisis in our time. I hope that people see and share this film so that enough of us become savvy enough soon enough to make a difference.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

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Alexander Shebanow

Director

Nicholas Adams

Writer

Alexander Shebanow

Writer

Regina Sobel

Writer

Adam Bolt

Producer

Alan Oxman

Producer

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Synopsis

An investigation into the dark side of higher education.

Director: Alexander Shebanow
Producer: Dan Rather
Screenwriter: Nicholas Adams, Alexander Shebanow, Regina Sobel
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 2, 2018
Runtime: 1h 34m

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