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Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
- 2021 ·
- enlighten me, shock me ·
- New Release
Summary:
The college-admissions bribery scandal was one of the most riveting news stories of 2019, because it laid bare the different rules America’s wealthy elite get to play by, with celebrities Felicity Huffman and Aunt Becky from Full House as its face. This documentary film takes a deep dive into the federal investigation that exposed how rich parents paid William Rick Singer large sums of money to bribe, cheat, and forge his way to getting their kids admitted to top universities. It’s directed by Chris Smith, who between this and his hit 2019 Fyre Festival documentary Fyre has become Netflix’s foremost chronicler of rich-people schadenfreude. Matthew Modine plays Singer in reenactments based on FBI wiretaps of calls between the fraudster and his clients.
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From Amy Nicholson at 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. Full Review
