Brooklyn Castle
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Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Brooklyn Castle tells the stories of five members of the chess team at a below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school that has won more national championships than any other in the country. The film follows the challenges these kids face in their personal lives as well as on the chessboard, and is as much about the sting of their losses as it is about the anticipation of their victories. Ironically, the biggest obstacle thrust upon them arises not from other competitors but from recessionary budget cuts to all the extracurricular activities at their school. BROOKLYN CASTLE shows how these kids’ dedication to chess magnifies their belief in what is possible for their lives. After all, if they can master the world’s most difficult game, what can’t they do? (Producers Distribution Agency)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    Nov 1, 2012
    100
    See it, and I dare you not to care about what happens to these kids, these Yankees of chess.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    Oct 20, 2012
    80
    The feel-good documentary is engaging enough to draw a respectable audience at arthouses, but distribs should work for exposure within communities like the ones this school serves.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Oct 25, 2012
    80
    It's a wonderful documentary look at an astonishingly successful public-school chess program that manages to be more moving and heartening than you expect. Which is saying a lot.
  4. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    Oct 16, 2012
    60
    If the film occasionally bumps up against the limitations of its "Spellbound"-like template, its refusal to ignore the social issues outside of the classroom proves it's more than simply a novelty human-interest story with impressive knight moves.

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