Pressure Cooker (2008)

Excellent but underrated film

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

In my field of writing studies, a concept called "sponsorship" (Brandt) is infamous. This concept speaks to the phenomenon by which structural, institutional, and often invisible forces give access to literate resources to some, while denying it to others (and the "sponsors," who are not individuals, but rather institutions, corporations, etc.) benefit from their sponsorship in some way. This film, better than any other I've ever seen, demonstrates how sponsorship works.CCAP, a culinary organization of sorts, awards college scholarships to inner-city high-schoolers who exhibit culinary skill by winning in local cooking competitions. This film traces one set of resource-poor inner city youth who, over the course of their high school careers, take a culinary course with a demanding, over-bearing teacher who trains them for this competition (typically with much success, and in the film, you find out exactly how much money this program earns for the kids). CCAP provides the means by which kids can escape their situations, and in the process, earns it own monetary, tax, and charitable rewards.The film itself does not discuss sponsorship. However, it shatters myths about inner-city youth being too lazy, uneducated, or dumb to succeed in life, and instead shows just how much resource-poor kids have to do to reap the same rewards as those who are resource-rich. These kids get up at 5 a.m. to work in the school's kitchen, are asked to train in the kitchen from 5 a.m.-til the end of the day during their Spring Breaks, work on the weekends and after school, play on sports teams, and still have to earn high enough grades to stay in the culinary arts course, which is only offered to the top students in the school in which the course is offered.I don't agree with the previous viewer that this film lags in the middle. It is a tense, moving, compelling, and often tear-jerking film that will grip you and teach you a lot about the world we live in.I highly recommend that any teacher who reads this review runs out and purchases the film immediately. I use it in most of the courses I teach, especially when I want to get at issues of racism and privilege.

I just loved this film! To watch them all grow together within one year and just become outstanding chefs is just a pleasant sight! I'm a culinary enthusiast and to watch Ms. Stephenson in action with those students just says that she's all about her job.Ms. Fatoumata just made me smile the entire way through. Her passion about education and strive to continue on with her life despite her father's opinion just shows that she's a strong woman of integrity.Ms. Erica's love for her family, more so her little sister, just puts into perspective that she will continue to fight for her beloved ones and her future.Last, but certainly not least, Mr. Tyree. This All-Star High School football player and cheerleader has gone to great heights. For him to put forth his maximum effort into everything he has done without the fear of his peers, has touched me tremendously. Certainly not one to fool with on the field nor in the kitchen, he has marked a spot for his success.I know Chef/Sergeant Wilma Stephenson and her crew has made this film in 2007 and its now 2011, I wonder how each of you are doing. Once again, the film was amazing. And hope to see you all back on the big screen in the upcoming years.God Bless you all and be safe.

I had the pleasure of viewing "Pressure Cooker" at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo. My first thought was that the culinary angle of the film would provide its uniqueness, or it's own flavor if you will, but cooking is merely the vehicle for a human drama about students and their passionate teacher simply trying to create an opportunistic future.The most appealing part of the film is the unique sense of humor provided by its characters. What really makes for a great documentary is an enigmatic or totally original character(s). Creators Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker find that character in Wilma, an outspoken and emotional lady with an in-your-face attitude but a heart of gold filled with nothing but love for her students. The humor she adds is what draws you into the film, developing a first impression that you are bound to regret making one the film ends and you see her for who she truly is.The directors also found three amazing students with compelling stories to focus on: the cheerleader who lives with her dad and is responsible for her blind sister, the football star who is the man of his household and an African immigrant who wants nothing more than to succeed on her own in a new country. At first you feel disappointed that the film is not more focused on the cooking, but as you get to know these students, who take to the camera with such ease, really opening themselves up, you become so invested in them that it's what happens to them that matters most.This film easily could have easily been just about the competition of trying to get scholarships, relying on that suspense alone as a hinge, but the directors turn it into something much different and much more meaningful. They strive instead to show a complete picture of the lives of these students while showing how cooking fits in. The choice creates sort of a lack of clear narrative structure at the beginning, hopping from one character-revealing scene to the next, but once the scholarship competition nears, everything falls logically into place and the film delivers emotionally at the end."Pressure Cooker" is a really easy doc to watch, full of humor and most importantly those compelling characters with compelling stories. Grausman and Becker appear to have only needed to be there with cameras to get a great film, but to their credit, it's well-edited, picking great moments to let their story shine.

My wife and I saw "Pressure Cooker" last night at the Starz Denver International Film Festival. At first, I was afraid I was going to hate it, due to the shaky camera work. But as the story unfolded, I was drawn in. And by the end of it, I was crying with the rest of the audience.This was the director's first documentary film, and thanks to some interesting characters and excellent editing, she's put together something fantastic.The film follows the lives of a strict but loving teacher of culinary arts in an inner city high school in Philadelphia, and a half dozen of her students. In an area where most kids don't have a lot of opportunities, these kids are learning to be professional cooks and competing for a few scholarships to big name culinary schools around the US. Their stories are all interesting and varied, and by the end you get a real sense that the students and the teacher have quite a bond. And of course you're rooting for them all to get scholarships.The story telling is awesome, the sound was surprisingly good, and the editing was top notch. My only complaint - and the only thing keeping me from giving this a 10/10 rating - was that the filmmaker didn't bother using any steadicam. Nearly all the shots are hand held. On a TV you probably wouldn't notice, but on a big screen it's a little distracting.