Somehow, it works. In large part this is thanks to the performances. Derbez is very likable, if a little too prone to moments of moist-eyed pathos, but the young actors are phenomenal.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 12, 2024

Christopher Zalla is never other than smart and sensitive, while drawing fine performances from his young cast — a sweet echo of this model relationship between teacher and student.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 12, 2024

Woe betide any who might suggest that it is profoundly manipulative and unabashedly sentimental. That said, there’s no gainsaying the skills of director Christopher Zalla and the cast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 6, 2024

This uplifting movie, written and directed by New York-based filmmaker Christopher Zalla, is a potent reminder that we should never give up on children, because to do so is to give up on the future.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2024

"...hardly radical filmmaking. But like teaching, if it reaches just one struggling student or one burned-out teacher, the film argues, it could well change the world."

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 14, 2023

You’ve seen this movie before; you probably won’t mind seeing it again.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 5, 2023

If the script can sometimes feel a tad pro forma, the film still proves an authentically moving and involving crowd-pleaser.

| Nov 4, 2023

Radical may hit all the requisite narrative arcs, but it does so with a level of nuance and examination that other films of this type either gloss over or ignore entirely.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 2, 2023

A sentimental drama that is based on a true story but boxes neatly into familiar packaging. The title is nearly oxymoronic: It boldly belies how close to convention the film hews.

| Nov 2, 2023

Christopher Zalla’s truth-based drama is a rarity, a crowd-pleaser about an unorthodox 6th-grade school teacher and his students that actually earns its stand-up-and-cheer status.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2023

But while “Radical,” an audience winner at the Sundance Film Festival, is formulaic in its approach, it gets enough out of its likable cast to earn at least a passing grade.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2023

“Radical” follows a predictable formula, and Derbez, a major star in Mexico whose last American projects were the Hulu film “The Valet” and the Apple 온라인카지노추천+ series “Acapulco,” lifts the material with his typical vibrant energy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2023

Derbez, always a charismatic screen presence, is at his best interacting with young people.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 1, 2023

Destined to bring a tear to even the most hardened of viewers, Radical is a genuinely delightful reimagining of a tale we might have mistakenly believed had run its course.

| Aug 21, 2023

Formulaic but undeniably effective.

| Jan 27, 2023

Comes to a stirring close that balances optimism with a side of heartbreak for those kids who lack access to the right resources.

| Jan 25, 2023

Zalla’s film occupies that strange place in which something inspired by a true story—and this one has an amazing, factual epilogue—is softened and broadened so much that even the heartwarming real stuff feels too good to be true.

| Jan 22, 2023

Two factors make Radical feel, well, radical: the story being driven by the unique culture of Mexico, and the kids, all exceptional actors, being so devastatingly young.

| Jan 20, 2023

Those who inspired “Radical” deserved to be celebrated, and it’s likely that a mass-appealing filmic interpretation of their against-the-odds accomplishments might function as the farthest-reaching vehicle to disseminate them.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 20, 2023