La grande triche

Cheaters is one of the best cable films. It's good because it makes a statement, which is that cheaters do prosper and that winning does count, contrary to what we are told throughout life. It justifies the characters' decision to cheat very nicely and it makes for an interesting story. It's not an amazing film that you can't believe they thought of, but one that's enjoyable to watch, partially because it is so plausible. Jeff Daniels plays the teacher who goes against policy and he is really convincing. The kids themselves are mostly cliches, but it doesn't matter because this isn't a movie about character, but about story, and the story is strong enough to make it a very good film.

I am not normally one to post a review unless its a movie I hate (check out my review of Titanic), but after reading some ignorant reviews posted by people who have obviously never had to live in the type of environment that these kids had to, I decided to put things into perspective. I, myself, live in an empoverished area full of minorities. Poverty + Minorities = no one giving a rats ass about you. What these kids did was far more important than a simple academic decathlon, what they did was throw a brick through the window of the owner's box.

When you pit the rich against the poor, the rich will always win. There is no competition. And where there is no competition, there is no cheating.

Anyone who believes that this film glorifies dishonesty and deceit is part of the problem.

I saw this film when it debuted on HBO earlier tonight. I was pretty impressed by the story (by director John Stockwell), about a group of inner city Chicago youths who decide to cheat on their Academic Decathlon exams. The element that drives the story, however, is its performances, especially Jena Malone as Steinmetz student Jolie Fitch and Jeff Daniels as Decathlon advisor Dr. Gerard Plecki.

These youths decide to cheat solely for ambition, to beat the rival Whitney Young Decathlon Team (who wins every year) at the State finals. Basically, they're desperate, being an inner city school whose funding is based mostly on athletics. Daniels goes along with the plan because of this: to make a statement on how much focus is more on athletics and less on academics.

The only reason I decided to watch this film was for Jena Malone, who's one of the more talented young actresses cropping up out of obscurity. She's only fifteen, yet she's a better actress than women twice her age. She's even being compared to a young Jodie Foster. Hopefully, she'll continue to accept performances that aren't from your latest American teen comedies.

I did manage, however, to find a good story out of this, somewhat reminiscent of "Stand and Deliver," which the students actually watch in one scene. Whether or not we agree on Dr. Plecki allowing the students to cheat, we'll always agree that it's the teacher's responsibility to teach, and teach morally. Make up your mind about cheating; this story focuses on cheating and its consequences, and will probably be one of those great films not too many people will see.

Had it been released to theaters, it would've done modestly in the theaters and been critically acclaimed, then fade away after a couple of weeks. But it's good enough to win a few hearts and minds. Watch it for Jena Malone, though. I did, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was nominated for an Emmy here.

This tv movie basically shows what cheating gets you: short lived triumph and a quick downfall. But this goes way beyond an after school special. This tv movie examines it all as a scandal and goes into great detail about why and what happened. One thing I found interesting about this movie was how people reacted to the Steinmetz High win. Even though we know they cheated, it's interesting to see how some people automatically assume they cheated because they beat out a private school in a game of intelligence. Acting is superb and the whole movie is very realistic. Thumbs up on this one.

I saw this movie for the first time in 8th grade and thought it was great. Funny and entertaining, with a bit of a moral thrown in. Once I went to highschool my view changed somewhat, considering I went to (and am at) Whitney Young. It's been said here before, but the characterization is all wrong. Whitney has a majority of black students and is neither private nor in the suburbs. At the time the movie was made, Whitney was simply the best public school in the city (new rivals have cropped up in recent years), and so it developed a nucleus of extremely intelligent kids. For the most part they are not the privileged suburbanites portrayed in the movie, although there have been some families that would move into the city just to send their kids there. Anyways, it killed the moral for me, but it showed me a different fault in the Chicago Public schools, that good schools get help while smaller ones get forgotten. This was the story of a forgotten school fighting to get their name back into the light. They went about it the wrong way, but there is something to be learned from it. Or maybe not, considering the funding gap just seems to get worse.

But if I forget all of this, ignore the realities, this is still a great movie.