Freedom Writers Reviews

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Ryan Cracknell
Calgary Movies
August 13, 2007
While it is, like its genre brethren, inspiring and uplifting, Freedom Writers glosses over so much material that it makes the process look too easy.
Full Review
Nick Davis
Nick's Flick Picks
August 4, 2007
Ironically, the film features almost zero teaching. Despite much pedagogical posturing, it doesn't teach us much, either.
Full Review | Original Score: C-
Liz Beardsworth
Empire Magazine
February 27, 2007
Despite solid work from the engaging cast, there's nothing new here to distinguish Freedom Writers as anything beyond a C+.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5
Top Critic
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
February 3, 2007
Full Review | Original Score: 1/6
Uri Lessing
eFilmCritic.com
January 19, 2007
The film may be inspired by a true story, but it's a mishmash of scenes we've seen before, and for a film about original teaching methods, the storyline is surprisingly derivative and predictable.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
January 15, 2007
LaGravenese ("The Horse Whisperer") has a tendency to sanitize every scene, and when he hits the audience's emotional sweet spot and a few tears begin to flow, you have the feeling that the release is unjustified.
Full Review | Original Score: C
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
January 15, 2007
Gee whiz, if Swank taught in the typical American school, there'd be no child left behind. They'd all be polishing apples and asking for homework.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
January 10, 2007
Freedom Writers will work for viewers with a penchant for this particular subgenre, but others might well find it too much of the same old thing.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5
Top Critic
Rob Nelson
Village Voice
January 9, 2007
Our eager-beaver heroine suffers the kids' sarcasm, fails to earn their respect by bringing in a Tupac tape, then wins them over in a crucial scene that, fact-based or not, rings as false as anything in Dangerous Minds.
Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat
January 6, 2007
The only aspect of these flicks that's changed since the days of The Blackboard Jungle is that the leads have gotten prettier...and whiter.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5
Top Critic
Tom Charity
CNN.com
January 6, 2007
Freedom Writers is another exceptional teacher scenario not so different from the norm.
Full Review
Fred Topel
Can Magazine
January 6, 2007
Sure, it was less obnoxious than Dangerous Minds but it was no The Substitute.
Full Review
Top Critic
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
January 5, 2007
Freedom Writers confounds its own claims to veracity by coming across as a veritable textbook in itself -- a textbook of earnest, liberal, white-woman-in-the-blackboard jungle clichs.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Top Critic
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times
January 5, 2007
It's a truly inspiring story; pity the movie doesn't live up to it.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Pam Grady
Reel.com
January 5, 2007
Annoying subplots and paper-thin villains ensure that the movie remains mired in mediocrity.
Original Score: 2.5/4
Top Critic
Kyle Smith
New York Post
January 5, 2007
One teacher can make a difference in a troubled student's life. I learned this from To Sir, with Love, Dangerous Minds and Van Halen's Hot for Teacher video.
Original Score: 2.5/4
Top Critic
Connie Ogle
Miami Herald
January 5, 2007
Never quite succeeds as anything more than Dangerous Minds Redux.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Top Critic
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
January 5, 2007
This film fails to earn what Erin Gruwell earned in real life: credibility.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4
Top Critic
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
January 5, 2007
Freedom Writers is a tribute to individualism wrapped in the most conformist of packages, one of those pictures where the message of the tale is flatly contradicted by the manner of the telling.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Sean P. Means
Salt Lake Tribune
January 5, 2007
Swank's scenes with the students spark with such energy that the rest of the movie... reminds you how formulaic it all is.
Original Score: 2.5/4
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