12/12/2018 Review: In ‘Science Fair,’ High School Students Are World-Class Scholars - The New York Times

Review: In ‘Science Fair,’ High School
Students Are World‑Class Scholars
Science Fair Directed by Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster Documentary PG 1h 30m

By Teo Bugbee

Sept. 13, 2018

Every year, a throng of the world’s most spectacular scientific minds descends on the
International Science and Engineering Fair, competing to see who will make the largest
contribution to humanity. Their projects promise to revolutionize aeronautics, arsenic testing,
vaccinations and neurological research. The authors of this research are all high school students.

The documentary filmmakers, Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, take a microscope to the
same convention that inspired this year’s “Inventing Tomorrow,” and like that film, they introduce
audiences to exceptional students from across the globe. Adorably, “Science Fair” finds its
teenage subjects as interested in trap music as they are in innovation.

As the rare class clown among this sweetly earnest bunch, one student, Robbie, is fascinated by
artificial intelligence and machine learning. The problem he identifies is that algorithms can
produce language, but the process of how or why computers make their decisions is unknown
even to coders. With a wide grin, he explains that his project is a machine‑learning algorithm that
tracks how machines learn.

If there is a criticism to be made of the unfailingly charming “Science Fair,” it is that, like Robbie’s
opaque algorithms, the film displays its subjects’ spectacular achievements without showing the
logic of how they reach their conclusions. There are brief explanations given to the mechanics of
each project, but the film is wedded to layman’s terminology at the expense of clarity. Social
science is also largely absent from the film, as the directors choose to focus on the triumphs of
individuals rather than the circumstances that make it possible for these individuals to excel.
Thanks to its lovable subjects, “Science Fair” nails the presentation, but its research is only
surface deep.

Science Fair
Directors Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/movies/science-fair-review.html 1/2
12/12/2018 Review: In ‘Science Fair,’ High School Students Are World-Class Scholars - The New York Times

Writers Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster, Jeff Plunkett
Rating PG

Running Time 1h 30m
Genre Documentary

Rated PG for high school dance moves. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 13, 2018, on Page C9 of the New York edition with the headline: Science Fair

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/movies/science-fair-review.html 2/2