Kernel Rating (out of 5):
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 90 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 13+. The documentary is about the role higher education is playing in the lives of young people, so it will be most interesting for teenagers. The only questionable things are some clips of various college party scenes, with underage drinking and fistfights between students.
It is undeniable that the United States is in the midst of a massive student debt problem, as costs of higher education skyrocket and more and more young people take out loans. Although ‘Ivory Tower’ paints this picture, its lack of solutions fails to push the documentary to the next level.
By Roxana Hadadi
Student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion in the United States, and every so often, U.S. politicians try to make some kind of grand gesture regarding the problem. How about debt forgiveness after 10 years if you work for a public institution? It’s supposedly a possibility, but stories of success are few and far between. How about lower interest rates? That idea has been stonewalled time and time again. The steadily increasing costs of higher education, and the government’s hesitance in really stepping into managing it, are shameful—but you probably knew that already. “Ivory Tower” rehashes the problem of student-loan debt by covering these same topics, but in not really taking anyone to task, it fails to truly draw attention to its own issues.
