Told with humor and suspense, and shot in a gritty verite style reflecting its unvarnished South Bronx milieu, Crotty's Kids follows five Eagle Academy debaters as they evolve from content-light amateurs to critical thinking heavyweights. But debate is only an ongoing McGuffin to the heart of the story: young men in search of an intellectual father figure. Coach Crotty arrives in their lives with the clock running out. In two years, the young men of Eagle are likely to become grist for a staggering statistic: 50% of urban males never graduate high school.