Movies are a part of social discourse, and they may show "life the way people would like to make it." As educators look at society's changing views of knowledge, learning, teaching, and success, they can engage in that discourse and consider ways it does--or does not--reflect and affect pedagogies and daily lives. As Hollywood directs society's attention to issues of social justice and changing views of teaching, teachers can respond by troubling conventional and critical notions of literacy. By exploring three films and raising questions concerning dialogue, contextual learning, and reading itself, classroom teachers can think about the ideological message of films and critical literacy in a new way. In this article, the films "Renaissance Man," "The Great Debaters," and "Akeelah and the Bee" offer positive representations of teaching and learning.