hyped garbage

An action-packed slog

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

In my field of writing studies, a concept called "sponsorship" (Brandt) is infamous. This concept speaks to the phenomenon by which structural, institutional, and often invisible forces give access to literate resources to some, while denying it to others (and the "sponsors," who are not individuals, but rather institutions, corporations, etc.) benefit from their sponsorship in some way. This film, better than any other I've ever seen, demonstrates how sponsorship works.CCAP, a culinary organization of sorts, awards college scholarships to inner-city high-schoolers who exhibit culinary skill by winning in local cooking competitions. This film traces one set of resource-poor inner city youth who, over the course of their high school careers, take a culinary course with a demanding, over-bearing teacher who trains them for this competition (typically with much success, and in the film, you find out exactly how much money this program earns for the kids). CCAP provides the means by which kids can escape their situations, and in the process, earns it own monetary, tax, and charitable rewards.The film itself does not discuss sponsorship. However, it shatters myths about inner-city youth being too lazy, uneducated, or dumb to succeed in life, and instead shows just how much resource-poor kids have to do to reap the same rewards as those who are resource-rich. These kids get up at 5 a.m. to work in the school's kitchen, are asked to train in the kitchen from 5 a.m.-til the end of the day during their Spring Breaks, work on the weekends and after school, play on sports teams, and still have to earn high enough grades to stay in the culinary arts course, which is only offered to the top students in the school in which the course is offered.I don't agree with the previous viewer that this film lags in the middle. It is a tense, moving, compelling, and often tear-jerking film that will grip you and teach you a lot about the world we live in.I highly recommend that any teacher who reads this review runs out and purchases the film immediately. I use it in most of the courses I teach, especially when I want to get at issues of racism and privilege.

It gets a little lost and repetitive in the middle, but this uplifting documentary of inner-city kids competing for scholarships to culinary colleges packs an emotional wallop, and manages to be truly inspiring without being sappy. It's also full of wonderful characters, starting with their teacher, a sort of drill sergeant with a heart. This is the kind of teacher every kid needs – one who isn't afraid to be tough as nails, but underneath is flowing over with love for 'her kids'. She's quirky, odd, unpredictable, and you can see that her students adore her. The students too are a fascinating bunch, from the huge football player who really puts his all into his cooking, to the recent immigrant from a poverty stricken village in Africa who sees America as a land of opportunity in a way very few of us born here can. A lovely film with a sense of humor and a great message.

Pressure Cooker was charming, heartwarming, funny, sad, deeply moving and joyous.I was clapping and crying (tears of joy)for the students and their wonderful teacher at the and of the movie. I just loved this film. I feel like these kids are in my heart now and I want all the best for them always. I would love to know what happens to the group as they head off to college and beyond.The strength and determination of these kids was inspiring to me. The strength and determination of their teacher was just as inspiring. I would watch it again and I will definitely recommend this film. Thumbs WAY up!

I had the pleasure of viewing "Pressure Cooker" at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo. My first thought was that the culinary angle of the film would provide its uniqueness, or it's own flavor if you will, but cooking is merely the vehicle for a human drama about students and their passionate teacher simply trying to create an opportunistic future.The most appealing part of the film is the unique sense of humor provided by its characters. What really makes for a great documentary is an enigmatic or totally original character(s). Creators Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker find that character in Wilma, an outspoken and emotional lady with an in-your-face attitude but a heart of gold filled with nothing but love for her students. The humor she adds is what draws you into the film, developing a first impression that you are bound to regret making one the film ends and you see her for who she truly is.The directors also found three amazing students with compelling stories to focus on: the cheerleader who lives with her dad and is responsible for her blind sister, the football star who is the man of his household and an African immigrant who wants nothing more than to succeed on her own in a new country. At first you feel disappointed that the film is not more focused on the cooking, but as you get to know these students, who take to the camera with such ease, really opening themselves up, you become so invested in them that it's what happens to them that matters most.This film easily could have easily been just about the competition of trying to get scholarships, relying on that suspense alone as a hinge, but the directors turn it into something much different and much more meaningful. They strive instead to show a complete picture of the lives of these students while showing how cooking fits in. The choice creates sort of a lack of clear narrative structure at the beginning, hopping from one character-revealing scene to the next, but once the scholarship competition nears, everything falls logically into place and the film delivers emotionally at the end."Pressure Cooker" is a really easy doc to watch, full of humor and most importantly those compelling characters with compelling stories. Grausman and Becker appear to have only needed to be there with cameras to get a great film, but to their credit, it's well-edited, picking great moments to let their story shine.