Director Debbie Lum’s Try Harder! takes place at Lowell High School, aka “tiger mom central,” one of the most esteemed public schools in San Francisco. The majority Asian American student body is held to an exceptional standard. From the moment they are accepted into Lowell, their collective goal remains the same: to get into a prestigious university that reflects their extensive academic accomplishments. It’s not as easy as it seems.
Many student voices supplement this picture, but the documentary highlights five in particular. Ian, Sophia, Rachael, Alvan, and Shealand invite viewers to take an intimate look into their academic achievements, family situations, and college application processes. Try Harder! takes an intersectional approach to depicting the student body’s struggles.
Class and race are inextricably tied up in their lived high school experiences and the college application process, from the presupposition that Rachael’s acceptance letters are due to affirmative action in spite of her vast achievements, to Alvin’s desire to keep from exploiting his father’s lack of a diploma—despite that this tidbit would “look good” on his university applications. It covers a broader scope as well, indicating the colleges who would snub Lowell students because an Asian American student population appears to them as “machines.”
Try Harder! is a documentary of contrasts, its negative subject matter belaying an overall lightness in tone. It’s an effective approach. The vibrancy and authenticity of the students make their subsequent victories, and especially their failures, all the more potent. Though consistently comical, it does not impart any illusions.
This is not a success story; no matter how brilliant, some students can never do quite enough. “I just feel like I tried so hard,” one student says following a plethora of rejection letters. “And now I’m going to a school that I didn’t have to try hard to get into.” When one young woman tries to make sense of Ivy League universities’ standards, she asks—in a manner that feels half-joking and half-genuine—if the schools just flipped a coin to decide who was getting in.
This documentary doesn’t convey any tidy life lesson or solid solution. It does however humanize these students who are each 1 in 100,000 to universities. It paints a fuller picture of the pressure of parental expectations. And it questions a system of Ivy League colleges whose criteria for acceptance can’t be determined by an outside eye. How can a group of exceptional young people come to feel so mediocre? Surely it isn’t the students who have to try harder, Lum seems to suggest. It is the college system itself.
Try Harder! is a stunning accomplishment for Lum and her subjects, as it takes viewers on one emotional, enlightening, and cohesive journey throughout the length of Lowell’s school year. This biography of the life of a school would make an excellent addition to documentary and education public library shelves. Highly Recommended.
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