海角大神

I鈥檓 usually not a big advocate of documentaries centered around contests, even when, as in the case of, say, 鈥淪pellbound鈥� or 鈥淪tep,鈥� they are eminently worth seeing. There鈥檚 something a little too reality TV-ish about these movies, and the countdown to the final competition is a glib way of creating tension.聽

All this is a roundabout way of saying that, although my generic objections to this genre remain, I did enjoy 鈥淪cience Fair,鈥� a documentary about the run-up to the 2017 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Directed by Darren Foster and Cristina Costantini (a two-time Intel ISEF finalist), this 鈥渇estival favorite鈥� winner at Sundance follows a bevy of entrants, culled for the national competition from 1,700 kids in 78 countries, as they show off their smarts.聽

What鈥檚 especially gratifying is that these (mostly) high-schoolers aren鈥檛 only smart; they鈥檙e modest. Certainly raging egos are ever present in the scientific community, as everywhere else, but the filmmakers have focused on a group who by and large seem genuinely humbled by the opportunity to present their findings to a panel of judges from the uppermost academic realms. Maybe their humility is due to their youth, but it also seems to be a function of something deeper: They know enough to know how much they don鈥檛 know.

The cast of characters is highly diverse, united only by their love for science and discovery.

Kashfia Rahman, the 14-year-old child of Pakistani immigrants, is from a school in Brookings, S.D., that has three gymnasiums and no science lab. Modest and shy, Kashfia, who wears a hijab to school, seems set apart from her fellow students in more ways than just intellect. The irony is that she is researching the responses of teenage brains to risky behavior. Unable to find a mentor, she seeks out the coach of the football team for motivational guidance, despite the fact that the team is a winless wonder. Flummoxed but honored, he accepts.聽

West Virginian Robbie Barrat scavenges spare parts to cobble together homemade computers that he hopes will lead to discoveries about how machines 鈥渓earn.鈥� His grades are not great 鈥� with his Hawaiian shirts and hippie 鈥檛ude,聽 he seems like one of those eccentric geniuses who can鈥檛 quite fit into the straits of normal academia 鈥� but he鈥檚 far beyond what anyone in his high school could teach him about computers. (One of his projects is getting a computer to analyze Kanye West lyrics and come up with new ones.)

Myllena Braz de Zilva and Gabriel de Moura Martins are from a poor neighborhood in Brazil where they are attempting to stop the spread of the Zika virus. Fourteen-year-old Anjali Chadha, who attends a magnet school in Kentucky, is working on a sensor for detecting arsenic. Ivo Zell, from Lorch, Germany, is experimenting with new ways to construct 鈥渇lying-wing鈥� aircraft. (The fact that he鈥檚 well over six feet tall means he matches up well with his project.)聽

And then there鈥檚 the rambunctious trio of Ryan Folz, Harsha Paladugu, and Abraham Riedel-Mishaan, who act more like bros than budding Einsteins as they concoct a prototype for a low-cost stethoscope.聽

In some ways, the most inspiring, and intimidating, person in the movie is Dr. Serena McCalla, a science teacher from Jericho High School in Long Island, N.Y., who appears to have given over her life to motivating her brightest science students, nine of whom qualified for Intel ISEF. The daughter of Panamanian immigrants, she is big on tough love, but no one seems to mind. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait until one of my kids wins the Nobel Prize,鈥� she says, and she definitely is not kidding.聽

I wish the filmmakers had focused more searchingly on the lives of these young people away from the labs; had included more about their families; had at least attempted to explain in more detail the intricacies of their experiments; and didn鈥檛 gear the entire movie toward the Big Reveal of winners and 鈥渓osers鈥� at the end (which I won鈥檛, of course, reveal).聽

But it鈥檚 impossible not to be charmed by these students, by their aspirations and idealism, not to mention the fact that one of them, or someone like them, may well end up winning a Nobel Prize. It鈥檚 also impossible not to recognize, although the movie does not make a political point of it, that a goodly percentage of these participants are first- or second-generation immigrants to the United States.

I鈥檓 also glad that the filmmakers couldn鈥檛 resist showing a mixed-gender dance among the students put on by Intel ISEF in Los Angeles. However prodigious these kids may be intellectually, their geeky awkwardness precedes them.聽Grade: B+ (Rated PG for some thematic elements and brief language.)