'Radical' Review: The Power Of A Passionate Teacher | Sundance 2023

Eugenio Derbez leads a charming, predictable crowd-pleaser.

Eugenio Derbez in Radical. Courtesy of Sundance.

While it’s not my personal favorite movie of Sundance, Radical ticked all the boxes for me to love it and to be a crowd-pleaser in general. As someone whose life was positively impacted by the presence of great, passionate teachers, Radical accurately portrays the way that they can and will open your eyes and make you truly believe that you have the potential to be great. The film tells the true story of Sergio Juarez (Eugenio Derbez), a replacement sixth-grade teacher at an elementary school in Matamoros, Mexico, where the students have some of the worst test scores in the country and are used to an environment of violence and hardship. We open with Sergio’s first day in the classroom, when he steps in for a teacher who decides to take a permanent maternal leave and opts for a more creative teaching style, as opposed to following others’ leads, purely teaching for the purpose of learning the ENLACE standardized test.

Eugenio Derbez in Radical. Courtesy of Sundance.

Radical takes its time to pick up and start rolling, but once you get there, everything moves smoothly and efficiently without leaving time for you to overthink and let your mind float away from the story. The script carefully ties multiple stories and arcs together for one concise conclusion while using classroom film pillars without relying on them to carry the story. That said, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way and may feel somewhat formulaic to certain viewers. It hits what is essentially every beat for a film of this genre to the point where it’s predictable. If anything, the film is charming, with Eugenio Derbez doing a lot of work to make sure that the emotional beats land just as well as the comedic ones. He is utterly charming and energetic and truly brings the passion that you’ll find in teachers who know you can do great things while inspiring adults and teachers to do more. The supporting cast helps realize the effect that Sergio has on his students, with Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, and Danilo Guardiola. That isn’t to say that the rest of the ensemble isn’t outstanding, which they are. These three are given the time to flesh out their characters and truly show what they can bring emotionally and comedically.

The best thing that Radical brings to the table is its sincerity. It wants to tell this story in a way that will not only bring emotion to its viewers for a number of reasons but may potentially inspire others to be the teachers that make a difference in our lives, which we need more than anything. If I didn’t have one of those teachers, someone who genuinely cared about challenging me to pursue my interests and education, then I most likely wouldn’t be writing this review. Radical is certainly a well-executed crowd-pleaser, even if it’s predictable. The film accomplishes what it sets out to do and will find a special place among many.