Athlete A (2020)

Athlete A (2020)

PG-13

netflix

The documentary event of the year

8.4

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary
2020
BONNI COHEN, FEMALE DIRECTOR
Géza Poszar, Gina Nichols, Jen Sey
104 min

What it's about

Follow the Indianapolis Star reporters that broke the story about USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's abuse and hear from gymnasts.

The take

This groundbreaking documentary follows the USA Olympics sexual abuse case that made headlines in 2015. Through interviews with Olympians, their families, and investigative reporters, it’s also a documentary on the overall culture of abuse in gymnastics: sexual, physical, and emotional.

In one scene from the 1996 Olympics, gold medalist Kerri Strug has to run, vault, and land - all with a severe foot injury that was covered up by her coaches. She does this twice, limping between attempts and crawling off the mat on the second, crying. Meanwhile, her family, her coaches, the spectators - the World - is celebrating.

When she’s carried off, it’s Larry Nassar, the pedophile at the center of the documentary, who carries her.

Athlete A is groundbreaking exactly because it illustrates that the problem is not only with one doctor, or the 54 coaches who were also found guilty of sexual abuse, or the morally bankrupt leadership of USA Gymastics; it’s also about what went so wrong with society to see the abuse of young girls as cause for celebration.

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

The Monk and the Gun (2024)

Pawo Choyning Dorji depicts Bhutan through this fascinatingly gentle comedy during its shift to democracy

8.1

Poison for the Fairies (1986)

Two Mexican schoolgirls forge a frightening friendship in this morbid coming-of-age horror

7.8

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Thank You, I’m Sorry (2023)

Estranged sisters reconnect amidst grief and bizarre comedy in this understated Swedish drama

6.5

Wind River (2017)

Sicario's screenwriter directs this story of murder in an Indigenous reserve

9.4

Incendies (2011)

Part melodrama, part war thriller, Incendies is gorgeous and heartbreaking from the first scene

9.9

Wild Tales (2014)

Co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar, this tumultuous Argentine anthology film tests the limits of human sanity when pushed to the extremes – and will also test yours.

9.9

Booksmart (2019)

Two academic overachievers from high school set out to prove that they're a smart and fun for one last time.

9.0

The Zone of Interest (2023)

A chilling and masterful display of the banality of evil

9.5

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.