Alternate Ending - Movie Review Podcast

While the experience of the students at Lowell High School is many standard deviations from my own, its exploration is an empathy trip, nevertheless.  The college application process has become increasingly rigorous and the competition for top tier schools is tight.  The teens in Try Harder! have centered their entire high school experience around joining the “right” clubs, making the “correct” connections and constantly seeking perfection in the name of “Stanford”.  Granted, Lowell kids aren’t your average students, but their plight is shared by so many teens today. Try Harder! reminds us how relieved we are that high school is over  Filmmaker Debbie Lum, takes us on a eye-opening anxiety ride (I do mean that kindly) that follows 5 students with very different familial and socioeconomic backgrounds.  Beyond that, the film explores the realities of racial bias and its role in educational opportunities.  For a moment, we get a peek into these teens lives and boy, it's stressful. Catching up with filmmaker Deb