Waiting for “Superman” is a tour de force, hooking you from the second it starts, and hanging on long after the credits roll. The latest opus from director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) tackles the failure of public education in America, taking on questions of funding, leadership and our fundamental beliefs about education.

Movie Review : Easy A

It helps that Guggenheim is a master filmmaker, milking every emotional sucker-punch and each zinger of a sound bite for all they’re worth. In this polished, briskly paced documentary, everyone from schoolchildren to superintendents, frustrated parents to policy wonks, have a say. Guggenheim begins with an admission of guilt for sending his own children to private school -- a lament that’s likely a common one for parents of a certain class and world view -- and a decision that betrayed his ideals. What follows is an earnest examination of a system gone terribly wrong, but with a clear point of view: If we have so miserably reneged on the promise of public education, what does that say about us, as a society? And what can we do to turn the ship around?