Premise: A documentary investigating the sexual assault scandal that rocked US Gymnastics.
This documentary is more of a "let's recap what we know" movie than a "let's see where this story takes us" movie. That's fine. It saves me from having to do a deep dive into Wikipedia or new stories on the web. There's value in that. It's a workmanlike documentary though. It gets all the people you'd expect they could get. It's not their fault that many gymnasts legally aren't allowed to say anything about this. It would've been nice though for there to be even one "Oh my god, they got ____" interview, like a Karolyi or someone.
This movie succinctly sums up the history of abuse in U.S. Gymnastics that went on for decades. It covers how Larry Nassar was able to assault hundreds of girls and escape ramifications for so long. It covers how the emotional abuse of the strict training could leave the athletes powerless and confused when faced with Nassar's assault. I would strongly recommend the 30 for 30 podcast series that goes into more detail about the Karolyis and their emotional abuse too. It covers that part much better, whereas Athlete A is more focused on the sexual abuse and what allowed that.
It sure is hard to come away from this not disgusted with U.S. Gymnastics*. It would've been nice to get a little more in the mindset of the people covering up all this. Calling them greedy monsters is a little too simple. How did they justify it in their minds?
*I'm assuming no one needs convincing about Nassar going into this, but if you do, it's obviously there.
I really don't want to short change the athletes who were willing and able to appear in this documentary and tell their story. Sadly, many of them are used to reliving this trauma in public, but that doesn't make it any easier. The movie very much tells their stories, and their stories are the most engaging parts between all the Indy Star office reenactments and creepy footage from Nassar videos.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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