Miami Jackson ChessCritical Thinking is John Leguizamo's feature directorial debut, and he also stars as Coach Mario Martinez. Set in Miami in 1998, it tells the true story of the Miami Jackson Senior High chess team: Black and Latino teenagers from one of the city's poorest neighborhoods who became the first inner-city team to win the U.S. National High School Chess Championship. The film premiered at SXSW 2020 and was released later that year.
“Chess is the great equalizer,” Leguizamo's Martinez tells his class. The real team lived that line. The film doesn't soften what the players were up against: the poverty, crime, and neglect that surrounded the school, and the skepticism that met a chess powerhouse from Allapattah. That part of the story was already being told long before the cameras: “Kingz in the Hood”, the Tropic Magazine feature preserved in this archive, reads like the film's source material.
The cast and the real people
| Actor | Plays |
|---|---|
| John Leguizamo | Coach Mario Martinez |
| Corwin C. Tuggles | Sedrick Roundtree |
| Jorge Lendeborg Jr. | Ito Paniagua |
| Angel Bismark Curiel | Rodelay Medina |
| Will Hochman | Gil Luna |
| Jeffry Batista | Marcel Martinez |
| Michael K. Williams | Mr. Roundtree, Sedrick's father |
Around the web
The story and the film, as told elsewhere. All links open in a new tab.
About the real team
- The Miami Herald front page, February 27, 1998: the team and its prodigy, in fullLINK
- Chess.com: Winning Nationals, the ultimate underdog story of 1998LINK
- John Dorschner, who wrote the original 1997 Tropic feature, looks backLINK
- Video: the 1998 “Your Move” chess teamLINK
- Coach Mario Martinez, still teaching chess with LearningChessLINK
About the film
- Miami New Times: a love letter to Miami Jackson Senior HighLINK
- Miami New Times: the true story behind Critical ThinkingLINK
- CBS Miami: heartfelt and inspirational, shot in Liberty CityLINK
- ChessBase: a fine film by John LeguizamoLINK
- Remezcla: Leguizamo on meeting the real teamLINK
- SAGindie: how the real Marcel taught the actors the real movesLINK
- Rotten Tomatoes: certified fresh at 94%LINK
- Wikipedia: Critical Thinking (film)LINK
Meet the real ones in this archive
Every character in the film walks through this archive as a real person. The Videos page has profile interviews with the real Coach Mario Martinez, Marcel Martinez, Rodelay Medina, and Gilberto Luna. The photo galleries hold the actual 1998 season the film dramatizes (regionals, states, Nationals, and the celebrations after), and The Story page gives the history the film compresses: Marcel's arrival from Cuba, Rodelay's 2000 national title, and the dynasty around them. Sedrick Roundtree, the film's central player, was county champion in 1996 and 1997 and appears throughout the press coverage.