MOVIE REVIEW: The Lottery
Put one notion to rest: The Lottery is not a poor cousin of Waiting for Superman. In some respects it’s a purer and more honest film, ferocious in its anger. And although an NPR reviewer called it “a devastating piece of propaganda,” the filmmaker begs to disagree.
Madeleine Sackler, not yet 30 years old, says The Lottery simply tells the stories of the lives of four families as they struggle to find better educational opportunities for their children. “That word, propaganda, has a negative connotation,” she said. “This movie is true.”
The Lottery follows four families in a poor part of New York City, a neighborhood with failing schools but also one that is becoming gentrified. As poorer residents see wealthy (generally white) families moving in, they end up fighting for what is theirs, and that means, ironically, that they end up fighting to keep their failing schools.
Sackler has sympathy for the families, whether they are pro- or anti-charte