The movie benefits from an air of earnest goodwill and well-turned performances.
The Film Stage
February 25, 2016
An effective, family-friendly film with a message that provides a valuable introduction to the issues surrounding immigration reform for the next generation of voters.
Sequences and scenes end unceremoniously, everyone in the movie seems to know each other's backstory before they're properly introduced, and mild jokes land with uncertainty.
A feel-good movie that would have felt even better with a shorter running time, "Spare Parts" is nonetheless an inspirational story that will warm your heart by film's end. It's far from perfect, but worth seeing.
Despite its clunkier elements, Matsueda's screenplay is alert to details that ground the film in the day-to-day lives of young people who are American in every way but technically.
While the appropriately titled "Spare Parts" might feel like it has been assembled from bits and pieces of other inspirational movies, that doesn't mean the fact-based drama is any less effective ...
This blatantly big-hearted product isn't half as vibrant as the original 2005 Wired article on which it's based, and myopically neglects to address Arizona's troubling anti-immigration legislation through even a splash of hindsight.
The film is moderately powerful in its exploration of the Latino students' lives outside the classroom, yet the dominant sequences involving the competition are right off the assembly line.
Though based on a Wired magazine story, this sticks closely to the formulas of inspirational-teacher and sports-team dramas; distinguishing it from the pack is the fact that all four students who formed the club were undocumented.
