Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking (2020) is a based-on-fact drama you can watch online on iFILM, and the directing debut of John Leguizamo. Miami, the late nineties: five teenagers from a poor, mostly Latino and Black part of town sit down at a chessboard.

Leguizamo himself plays Mario Martinez, the teacher running an elective nobody respects. Outside the classroom there are drugs, knives and quick routes to a cell; inside it he keeps putting his students in front of the board and making them think two moves ahead. Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Corwin Tuggles and Angel Bismark Curiel play kids who find in chess the one thing the street never offered them — a real shot. Michael Kenneth Williams turns up in one of his last roles.

The film draws on the genuine run of the Miami Jackson High team, which reached the 1998 U.S. National Championship. No syrup about sport saving lives: it stays honest about how hard every move comes, on the board and off it. Stream Critical Thinking (2020) online on iFILM.