Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Matthew ModineRick Singer
- Roger RignackJohn B. Wilson
- Jillian PetersonLead FBI Agent
- Courtney RackleyJane Buckingham
- Wallace LanghamGordon Caplan
- Josh StambergBill McGlashan
- Jeff RectorDevin Sloane
- William-Christopher StephensRudy Meredith
- Cullen ArbaughYoung Rick
- Leroy Edwards IIIAthletic Director
Recommendations
- 83
Entertainment Weekly
Most illuminating are the various journalists, attorneys, witnesses, and admissions counselors who testify to the case - 80
The New York Times
The gripping documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal shifts the spotlight back to Singer, played in re-enactments by Matthew Modine with dialogue taken directly from wiretaps, to understand how a flip flop-clad former basketball coach rebranded himself as an academic glad-hander for the 1 percent. - 75
TheWrap
Even with the re-enactments, 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. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admission Scandal is a documentary, yet Matthew Modine does some of the most oddly compelling work of his career in a fully realized performance in this movie. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
As a piece of filmmaking, the trick of Operation Varsity Blues is that it provides first-rate entertainment even as it incites sputtering rage. - 75
The A.V. Club
What becomes clear in this film—if it wasn’t obvious already—is that sometimes the ways in which the rich and powerful thrive have nothing to do with merit. Sometimes they just buy access to people like Singer, who are good at selling their customers a story they can tell. - 75
The Playlist
The true drama in the admissions scandal is not the ringleader or the celebrities and hedge-fund magnates who hired him but what this Hunger Games scenario means for all the children whose parents cannot afford his services. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The script’s skillful tension makes it easy to forgive Operation Varsity Blues its occasionally clunky missteps. At least it tells a tale as old as time — of the insatiable rapacity of those who already have more than anyone else — with novel relish.
