So far, Immutable fits the trope. But these debaters didn’t have to wait for a charismatic coach to believe in them. Long before they took up debate, their parents had formed and imparted complex, sophisticated, and varied views on race and poverty. (Mothers are the only parents who have speaking roles in the film.) The kids join the Washington Urban Debate League (WUDL) to talk about issues they have also explored at home.
While helping him to prepare for a debate, Noah’s mom Delores advises her son, “When you’re telling me about capitalism, I need you to go deeper with it. Think how it relates to you. How does it impact . . . what’s happening with your grandmother or your dad’s parents or your dad or me?”
Later, she tells the interviewer, “I just made sure that he understood what he’s debating about. There are lives that are connected to what [they’re] debating about. And it’s real-world; it’s today.”
These students are becoming sophisticated analysts of the social world, supported by loving families. I have no doubt that WUDL’s executive director, David Trigaux, and the league’s other adult staff are superb educators, but it’s the teenagers who are the protagonists of the film. One adult says: “I feel that the best gift I can give them is to ensure that they are in the room with people that are free.” She wants students to have “agency to move through this world by choice versus by force of survival.”
Research shows that debate has substantial educational benefits, such as higher reading scores and better odds of completing high school and attending college (see “Resolved: Debate Programs Boost Literacy and College Enrollment,” research, Summer 2024). The programs that have been evaluated, such as the Boston Urban Debate League, are extracurricular and therefore voluntary. I suspect that debate is particularly beneficial for teenagers who are motivated by competition, drawn to oral performance (debaters must talk unnaturally fast), and interested in controversial social issues. Although some students flourish in a conventional classroom, many with these distinct characteristics may learn much better as debaters.
“In the beginning, he sucked,” Delores says of son Noah. “I mean, you can edit that if you want, but . . . it was torture watching him debate. I kept saying to him, ‘You want to keep going? Do you want to keep going?’” Noah insisted that he wanted to continue because, as he told his mother, “I’m going to figure this out.” She recalls, “He found his community, the space where he could be competitive as well as show his intellect, all at the same time.”
Immutable departs from the cinematic convention of oppressed kids defeating elite snobs by presenting the WUDL debaters in the tournaments as diverse in many respects, not as obviously disadvantaged. (Nor do they always win.) It is a nuanced and beautifully made film that introduces many lovable individuals and moving relationships.
Daniella, a passionate debater with a neurological disorder that sometimes causes debilitating panic attacks has a calm and centered partner, Sitara, whose face conveys pure compassion when an attack strikes her teammate during a tournament.
