Waiting for Superman

Today's group of new DVDs is a pretty diverse bunch. There's heart-pounding entertainment, romance, and a powerful documentary. If you're keeping track of the Oscar-nominated films you've seen, then one of these releases will help you out with your task.

Unstoppable

An expert engineer (Denzel Washington) and a rookie conductor (Chris Pine) band together to stop a runaway train carrying dangerous explosive materials in this Oscar-nominated action flick. Even though the plot is simplistic, the non-stop pace will keep you hooked from beginning to end. The extras on the DVD include a director's commentary track and a featurette on the script development.

86%

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Josh Brolin stars as Roy, a writer whose career and marriage to his wife Sally (Naomi Watts) have both gone downhill. To combat his boredom, he stares out the window at his gorgeous neighbor (Freida Pinto), while Sally forms a crush her boss (Antonio Banderas). Even though it's not Woody Allen's best, the film still has a few charming moments.

46%

One more release when you read more

Quality education isn't guaranteed in America, but it should be. Davis Guggenheim follows five students and their parents as they try to navigate the public school system in Waiting For Superman. The poignant film exposes what the director calls "a system that's built for adults, but not really (one) to serve the kids." I recently interviewed the director while he was in San Francisco.

LilSugar: Is this film "Superman"? You bring up some of what people already know and much of what they don't in the documentary. Did you make this movie with the intention to save the public school system, or did it evolve as you were filming?

Davis Guggenheim: What's amazing about public education is that everyone wants great schools. It's not like they are going to argue about that. The problem is people (over time), they give up because they think it's too complicated or it's impossible to fix. And, I'm trying to make a movie to get people to care again and to believe it's possible and to fight so every kid can get a great education.

LS: Are parents who choose to send their children to private school exacerbating the problem, or helping because then there is then less competition to get in the good public schools?

DG: I take my three kids to a private school and I drive past three public schools on the way and it haunts me because the kids in my neighborhood aren't getting what my kids have. What about those kids, don't they deserve what my kids are getting? And, I also feel like my kids are missing out — they aren't going to their neighborhood school. I'm part of the problem and sort of creating this double system where some kids get a good education and some kids don't. I started the movie saying I'm part of the problem. I'm lucky and I think that has to change. I've seen parents go to extreme measures to find a good school for their children and it shouldn't end there. You should say I'm going to do what's right for my kid and go the extra mile to help other kids. My wife and I went to our public school and we offered our help and want to be good neighbors so we keep going back. We aren't going to fix our schools until everyone is outraged and demands that all of our schools work.

To see the length of time Guggenheim believes it will take to solve this problem, read more

Every so often there comes a documentary ready to unleash our inner activists: Super Size Me pulled the curtain back on the fast food industry, An Inconvenient Truth got us to take notice of global warming, and now Waiting for Superman will delve into America's problematic education system.

From the people who brought us An Inconvenient Truth, Superman shows us that kids in the US are unfortunately far behind the majority of developed countries in terms of learning. How's this for a fact: the upcoming generation will be the first that is actually less literate than their parents. Consider my mind blown. Hopefully the film will cause enough ruckus to make the powers change the current protocol — I know I'm already ready to picket just from this trailer. The doc comes out this Fall, but watch the preview (warning: may cause waterworks) when you read more