DIFF Review: eduCAUTION

Score:B

Director:David Esfeh

Cast:Various

Running Time:20.00

Rated:NR

This documentary short on the plight of the student loan crisis in America is, in short, eye opening. It's also a bit frightening and kinda makes me rethink any sort of graduate degree.

At the filming of this documentary, undergrad and grad students have accumulated a trillion dollars in student loans. And that number is just growing. The juxtaposition of talking head interview footage from university officials and student debtors with news reel footage of presidential and senatorial speeches paints a pretty bleak picture of our educational system.

eduCAUTION does a pretty good job explaining how we got into this predicament and what the future holds if we don't do anything to change the status quo; however, no possible solutions are presented. Just the facts, man. Given that it's a documentary short, I can't really fault the director for that. The research is clearly presented, bleak as it is. It's a strong look at a very dismal topic, and even if it doesn't present anything confoundingly new, it's solid. I'm waiting for the followup documentary on how to fix this problem, but...I doubt that happens.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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