NPR review of Brooklyn Castle! also

SXSW Film: 'Brooklyn Castle' And The Looming Threat Of Commercial Success


If I could pick only one film from the South By Southwest film festival and bodily force everyone I know to see it, it would be Brooklyn Castle, a documentary directed by Katie Dellamaggiore that follows the chess team at I.S. 318, a New York junior high school that has become a superpower at national tournaments.

... I have a gnawing fear of seeing somebody like Charlize Theron (an actress I really like) as the woman who coaches the kids in chess.  (!!!!)


read it all

FLASH REVIEW: THE FANTASTIC PUBLIC SCHOOL CHESS DOC BROOKLYN CASTLE (SXSW 12)


oh, and MOVIES.COM:

"Also kind of a bummer, Brooklyn Castle still shocked nobody by picking up the audience award for the Documentary Spotlight section. It’s a favorite of many critics and clearly of many viewers, and I was delighted that it holds up to the hype. Part kid competition film about junior high chess players, part education system issue doc about budget cuts in New York City schools, Brooklyn Castle is very good at making you care about its characters, cheering for cute young kids you otherwise wouldn’t know triumphing over cute young kids you don’t know at all. I might have preferred less of the focus on winning and losing and more on the cause, which I find strange coming from me, since I rarely am crazy about issue docs. And this is the type that literally had people walking out saying, “that film was like a fundraiser.”"