Freedom Writers is based on the true story of
Long Beach gangbanger teenagers who were encouraged to put their angst
to paper in the charged years following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Writer-director Richard LaGravenese leans heavily on the grooves of audience expectation
established by the estimable screen canon of insistent mentors butting heads with
cynical and otherwise hardened urban teens — movies like Stand and
Deliver, Lean on Me, and, yes, 1995’s Dangerous Minds. Still, a
critic’s heart isn’t automatically a hardened one, and on balance
there’s more good than bad here. For the full review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down.