This documentary purports to be a profile on students going through the 2020 school year at an Oakland high school. As if the anxiety over test scores and college applications wasn’t enough, a pandemic was about to break — they just didn’t know it. Neither did director Peter Nicks (“The Waiting Room” and “The Force”) whose “Homeroom” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Documentary editing award. The portraits of the students here are culturally vibrant, but not substantial enough. The central student is go-getter Denison Garibo, a member of OHS’ Student Union and a student member of the Oakland School District. The usual moments are depicted; a homecoming rally, the school dance, and online college acceptance celebrations. But just as the school year hits its peak, COVID-19 enters the picture and, instead of realizing he might have a goldmine of footage at his disposal, Nicks decides to depict the political instead of the personal — the George Floyd protests ignite the students’ riding social awareness. It all feels a little out of place for a movie that initially wanted to tackle the flawed U.S. school system. And so, what starts off as a portrait of education turns into an activist call to abolish the school’s police. Maybe right after the pandemic hit Nicks should have called it quits on filming this one and gone on to his next project, but he didn’t, the filmmaker went on and the resulting films feels scattershot, rushed and all over the place. [C+]
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The timing is interesting. The settlement talks will occur nearly a month after the $7 million-per-day ticking fee start tabulating, which puts real pressure on Paramount to get this done.