Whiz Kids
Shadow Distribution | Release Date: June 4, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Daily NewsStaff (Not credited)
Can't get the kids in your life to pay enough attention to homework? Show them Tom Shepard's terrific documentary, and you might just light a fire. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
It's the candid moments of joy and accomplishment -- Welcker finding out she's an Intel contest finalist, Khan learning he's been accepted to Yale, high school valedictorian Cisneros thanking her devoted parents in her graduation speech -- that really make this one soar. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla Taylor
This quietly absorbing film is finally more about character formation--curiosity, persistence, endurance--than about achievement as a means to some extrinsic social end. Read full review
70
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Nominally structured around the Intel Science Talent Search, Whiz Kids traces a dual process: the empowerment of economically challenged students who otherwise might not realize their potential, and the empowerment of the nation through the problem-solving efforts of its best and brightest. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Tom Shepard's quietly observant documentary tracks its stressed-out subjects through an array of personal and scholarly challenges. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineTim Cogshell
It is America's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition. Over two thousand students begin each year vying for slots; 40 are chosen as finalist. For high school science and math geeks this is a big deal. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
So even though the science fair was something your other classmates did while you mastered Pitfall!, the sights in Whiz Kids will no doubt stir you. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Though the film seems less like a theatrical release and more like something that might play on an obscure PBS station at 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, it's reasonably interesting as a personality study. Read full review
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