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Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal

2021

Chris Smith

Documentary, Matthew Modine, Sarah Chaney, Leroy Edwards III, Ken Weiler

6.1

414

Documentary An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged.

	Author	Review
United States	Inkoo Kang The Hollywood Reporter	"The script’s skillful tension makes it easy to forgive 'Operation Varsity Blues' its occasionally clunky missteps."	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"'Operation Varsity Blues' puts a vivid spin on the college admissions scandal"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Presents the whole iceberg, in an innovative and compelling way. (...) [It] has all the facts, and lays them out with galvanizing clarity and precision"	POS
United States	Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"This is a pretty straightforward documentary. It’s nonetheless valuable for the way that it takes a complicated story and breaks it down into understandable pieces"	POS
United States	Robert Abele Los Angeles Times	"While the performances are fine (...) the distinctions between conversations aren’t always compelling"	NEU
United States	Chris Barsanti The Playlist	"A dutiful crime documentary that raises few hackles (...) [It] doesn’t waste breath on moralistic huffing and puffing about what a certain group of rich parents did to get their children into exclusive colleges."	POS
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"The film’s greater strength comes from its talking head interviews that point out how Singer was able to succeed for so long and the system that allowed him to prosper"	POS
United States	Eric Kohn IndieWire	"The juxtaposition of the more traditional documentary foundation with its overstylized reenactments has the fascinating effect of recognizing the weird-but-true nature of this story while explaining that, yes, it really did happen this way"	POS
United States	John Serba Decider	"[It] is by no means definitive, but it’s a solidly journalistic doc that stirs up some serious issues, and is good enough to warrant a watch."	POS

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