Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, even though I had heard about the college admissions scandal, I didn’t really know in details what exactly happened back then so I was quite curious to learn more about this story. Well, the process of re-enacting what happened might seem rather cheesy but the fact that all or most of the dialogues were based on some actual wire tapes from the FBI made this approach actually really effective. However, if the testimonies of (real?) students were understandable as it was the only way to include them in this tale, it didn't work so well, I’m afraid. Furthermore, I wish we did learn more about Rick Singer (how awesome it would have been if the guy himself had given an interview for this documentary?) but nobody really knew him after all so the way they handled him was better than speculating too much. On the other hand, even though Singer was obviously the mastermind behind this scam, plenty of people involved such as the parents, coaches and other people working at the top of the colleges hierarchy were also guilty so I’m not sure if it was really fair to put so much focus on him. Of course, the guy was basically a con artist but, eventually, he simply found a loophole and used it but he never really forced the parents to use this strategy. It was also so interesting that while the whole thing should have displayed how f*cked up their system has become, it actually made the Ivy league colleges become even more in demand somehow. They also argued that it was incredible that white rich people would take this length to fraud this system but I believe most people, black or white or yellow, if they have the financial means, would do pretty much anything as long as they believe that they won’t get caught. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a really solid documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.