IVORY TOWER

(director: Andrew Rossi; cinematographer: Andrew Rossi/Bryan Sarkinen/Andrew Coffman; editors: Chad Beck/Christopher Branca/Andrew Coffman; music: Ian Hultquist; cast: Andrew Delbanco, Anya Kamenetz,Clayton Christensen; Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Josh Braun/Andrew Rossi; CNN Films; 2014)

“Sobering documentary on the spiraling high tuition in America’s colleges.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Sobering documentary on the spiraling high tuition in America’s colleges, which is making a higher education become much more difficult for the middle-class to afford. Talking heads Andrew Delbanco, Anya Kamenetz and Clayton Christensen provide their expert opinions on why it’s happening and how dangerous it is to the country. The point made is that the colleges are no longer selling its educational benefits as much as the experience of going to college.

Director Andrew Rossi (“Eat This New York”/”Page One: Inside the New York Times “/”Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven“) asks if it’s worth going to college. Rossi provides a highly critical and scathing report on how colleges are run and offers a few alternate suggestions to getting a college education.

A valuable film for parents of college students and for students in search of more info about colleges. It journeysfrom the elite campus of Harvard University to a tiny private men’s only colleges in the middle of Death Valley and then to what’s called an “uncollege” startup in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It’s worth checking out even if it fails to give you all the facts on this broad subject. But, if looked upon as a quickly drawn overview of the broken down educational system, it might work as it seems to know what it’s talking about and might open some eyes for students searching for a educational experience that would be a good fit for them.

REVIEWED ON 11/22/2014 GRADE: B-