‘Try Harder!’ Review: The Odds Are Stacked Against Gifted Teens as They Apply for College [Sundance 2021]
Posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2021 by Ethan Anderton
Lowell High School in San Francisco is the top public school in the city. Every student is practically a genius and will do everything they can in order to be accepted to schools like Stanford, Harvard, Brown, MIT, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and more. While it might seem like just a first world problem for these teens to worry about what upscale, prestigious university they’re trying to attend, the documentary Try Harder! from director Debbie Lum paints a universal portrait of the challenges facing today’s teens as they’re not only scrutinized by their parents and college admission officers, but constantly comparing themselves to their peers as they try to figure out how to stand out from the crowd. Read More »
