This documentary hit Netflix today and I had the chance to watch Athlete A and here is my review for it. The premise of the film documents the real story of Dr Larry Nassar and how he molested young gymnastics for 30 years and how US Athletics covered it up.
Now this film deals with a really intense and disturbing subject matter and it does it really well. As you learn more and more you realise just how disgusting and horrific the actions by Nassar was and just how badly run the US Gymnastics was and how they aided this pedophile which is just truly horrifying.
The thing that makes this really awful, is that by all accounts Nassar seemed like a nice guy and the nicest guy at US Athletics. But he used this to break all the trust issues that there was and let him commit these horrible acts and it is so satisfying seeing him get taken down.
But this film did have some negatives and it is mostly due to it's pacing. I felt like there was some background information that was presented here that didn't add that much to the story. It would have been fine for a mini series but this is only a 1 hour 45 film so it dawdles at times when it shouldn't be. Also if feels like it skips over the really interesting parts involved in this whole case.
Also, obviously seeing all these gymnasts revealing their stories are highly emotional I just wish they could of got Simone Biles to take part. She revealed to the court that she was a victim and with her being the most famous gymnast in the world it would have added more star power here.
Overall, this is a good documentary with a disturbing subject matter. But it has some pacing issues which hurts it and would have maybe been better as a mini series.
Rating - 7/10.
