''Critical Thinking'' is a 2020 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film based on the true story of the 1998 Miami Jackson High School chess team, the first

inner-city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship. ''Critical Thinking'' was directed by

John Leguizamo John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (, ; ; born July 22, 1960 or 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and film producer. He has appeared in more than 100 films, produced more than 20 films and documentaries, made more than 30 televisio ...

(in his directorial debut), written by

Dito Montiel Orlandito Montiel is an American author, filmmaker, and musician. Early Career & Music Born in New York City, Montiel was active in the early '80s New York hardcore punk scene when he was vocalist for Queens-based Major Conflict. Later, he woul ...

, executive produced by Carla Berkowitz and Harvey Chaplin, and stars Leguizamo alongside

Jorge Lendeborg Jr. Jorge David Lendeborg Jr. (born January 21, 1996) is an American actor. Early life Lendeborg was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and moved to Miami, Florida at around age four. Career He made his theatrical acting debut in the ...

Angel Bismark Curiel Angel Bismark Curiel (born October 16, 1995) is an American actor from Liberty City, Miami. He has appeared in ''America Adrift'' (2016), ''Louie's Brother Peter'' (2017), '' Night Comes On'' (2018), ''Monsters and Men'' (2018) and ''Ashes'' (2 ...

, Will Hochman, Corwin Tuggles, Jeffry Batista, Ramses Jimenez,

Rachel Bay Jones Rachel Bay Jones is an American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of '' Pippin'' and Evan Hansen's mother, Heidi Hansen, in ''Dear Evan Hansen''. The latter earned her an Daytime Emmy Award, ...

and

Michael K. Williams Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He rose to fame for his acclaimed portrayals of Omar Little on the HBO drama series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008) and List of Boardwalk Empire characters, Alb ...

. It was released on September 4, 2020 by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical (formerly Vertical Entertainment) is an American independent film distribution company founded by producers Rich Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. Vertical releases films across all mediums, including theatrical, video on demand, physica ...

Plot

In 1998 inner-city

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Sedrick is an African-American student living with his widowed father, a knowledgeable chess player. He decides to take chess as an "easy" elective and meets

Cuban-American Cuban Americans ( or ) are Americans who immigrated from or are descended from immigrants from Cuba. As of 2023, Cuban Americans were the fourth largest Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic and Latino American group in the United States aft ...

teacher Mario Martinez, known to his students as Mr. T. In the class, he also meets Ito, a student who works long hours after school to support his single mother; the class includes class clown Roddy, and Gil, who is of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

descent. Principal Kestel, who does not see the value of the chess club at the school and views it as a de facto detention hall, threatens to redirect funding from the club to the school's football team; however, she decides to offer the team an opportunity to fundraise by selling candy bars. When the boys scheme to convert the candy bars into marijuana infused-cookies goes awry, Mr. T uses his personal savings to register the team in the regional chess tournament. The team wins the tournament to advance to the state championship, and at the end of the road trip Sedrick happily tells his dad about his victory. Sedrick's father tells him to get his life straight and decide on his future rather than waste his time on chess. Ito loses his job because of his decision to go out of town to the tournament and his mother throws him out of her apartment, leading him to quit the chess team. The rest of the team realizes that they need money to register for the state championship. They also need Ito, who previously qualified for the regional. If they can't achieve both, they risk forfeiting. The boys face interrogation from police officers who believe that they have information about the murder of another student by a local drug dealer. Soon after, Ito, dealing with financial troubles, is recruited by a drug kingpin because of his knack with numbers. The boys raise funds for the state championship by washing cars. They also recruit a new member, Marcel, whom Mr. T calls

Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

. At the last minute, Ito changes his mind and travels with the boys to the tournament. An airline company had promised free tickets via sponsorship for them if they make it to the nationals, which they narrowly qualify for due to Ito's refusal to accept a draw, after which he loses due to a

zugzwang Zugzwang (; ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move will worsen their position. A ...

. He stays at home to fix his life, with a drug dealer, Andre, threatening to hand him over to the police if he tries to quit. Ito invites Donny and Andre over under the pretense of talking about business, but Andre suspects something to be off about the meeting. He seizes Ito's

Walkman is a brand of Personal stereo, portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable Compact Cassette, cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, ...

and forbids him from answering the phone, and talks about Sedrick and his girl Chanakya and what he might do to them. Ito gets angry and grabs Andre, bashing his head on a freezer until Andre is unconscious. Ito then leaves the store and walks into the street. The boys' progress well and are pitted against Akopyan, the three-time, back-to-back reigning champion. Akopyan plays individually against Marcel, who has the best record on the team. At some point in the game, Akopyan, who is having a difficult time beating Marcel, decides to take a bathroom break and suggests that Marcel should do the same. However, Akopyan mistakenly leaves his clock timer running. In the bathroom, Akopyan tries to talk Marcel into accepting a draw, and Marcel replies that a win is all his team needs to win the tournament. When the game resumes, Akopyan is upset to find his clock running which puts Marcel up in a time advantage. However, Marcel waits about three minutes and a half without a move to level the game time, and the two finalists resume the game on an equal footing. Eventually, Akopyan has to resign as his position is obviously losing. Marcel is crowned as the new champion alongside the boys and Mr. T. During the end credits, the real-life chess team and coach are shown.

Cast

as Mario Martinez aka Mr. T *

as Mr. Roundtree *

as Principal Kestel * Corwin Tuggles as Sedrick Roundtree *

as Ito Paniagua *

as Rodelay Medina *

Will Hochman Will Hochman is an American stage, television and film actor. Early life From Brooklyn, Hochman graduated from Colby College with a degree in Economics. He started acting at the age of twenty years-old, and took an acting course at Colby's Depart ...

as Gil Luna * Jeffry Batista as Marcel Martinez * Zora Casebere as Chanayah * Ramses Jimenez as Andre Lamar * Todd Allen Durkin as Detective Ransone * Ziggy Marley as Elizabeth Reagan

Production

In November 2015, it was announced that

, Will Hochman, Jeffrey Battista, Corwin Tuggles and

had joined the cast of the film, with Leguizamo directing from a screenplay written by

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in November 2018 and was filmed over 20 days, on a budget of .

Release

''Critical Thinking'' was scheduled to have its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

in March 2020. However, the festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Shortly after, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on September 4, 2020.

Critical reception

''Critical Thinking'' holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on reviews, with an average of .

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

report a score of 65 out of 100 based on 9 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

References

External links

* {{Dito Montiel 2020 films 2020 biographical drama films American biographical drama films Drama films based on actual events Films about chess Films about educators Films set in 1998 Films set in Miami Vertical (film company) films 2020 independent films 2020 directorial debut films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films English-language biographical drama films English-language independent films