Light It Up

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

There's something distinctly American about Light It Up, a high-school film in which ethnically diverse students explain their underfunded education to the world via the Internet as they hold a wounded police officer at gunpoint. This situation could only happen in America. Perhaps only in Hollywood.

Rosario Dawson leads the youth ensemble that pleads its case for reasonable learning conditions as the snipers gather. It's rather like a post-Columbine Breakfast Club, with Judd Nelson appearing here as a sensitive teacher who tries to make a difference. Forrest Whitaker is the bad cop who shares his story as the misunderstood students try to make themselves understood.

The movie seems a little prepackaged and target-audience directed (much like its soundtrack), perhaps because it's hard t