Critic Reviews

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  You look at all these beautiful kids, with all the potential in the world, and every expectation for a great life, and you know that at most one-sixth of them will come out of the room with a fighting chance. That shouldn't be.

• Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

  The film takes an effective, two-pronged approach to tell its enlightening tale.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Though infinitely classier -- and easier on the eyes -- than Cartel, the recent documentary exploring public education, this latest charter-school commercial is no less one-sided.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Charter schools, good or bad? That's the question raised by director Madeleine Sackler's timely but standard documentary The Lottery.

• John Anderson, Variety

  Advocacy to the point of propaganda.

• Eric Hynes, Time Out New York

  Director Madeleine Sackler favors an agenda of advocacy over complexity, making The Lottery an effective, if unapologetically one-sided, piece of agitprop.

• Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews

  Although the movie has an extremely retrograde viewpoint, it is a must-see for those trying to understand the hype around charter schools.

• David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

  An intriguing if uneven documentary...

• Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

  This decidedly opinionated but undeniably illuminating film looks at the case of the Harlem Success Academy, a series of schools that is succeeding in educating children in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods.

• Bill Weber, Slant Magazine

  The Lottery insufficiently dares a more probing documentary approach in addressing the crises surrounding inner-city education.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  An eye-opening, provocative and heartfelt documentary that will inspire you to debate and discuss the issue of charter schools openly and intelligently.

• Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com

  Polemic plays on the heartstrings to bang the drum for charter schools, with drama against the teachers' union as the enemy.

• Kam Williams, NewsBlaze

  An extraordinary expose' illustrating what a crying shame it is that the public schools in the inner cities have degenerated to the point that you have to rely on the luck of the draw for a decent education.

Read all 13 critic reviews