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Film Review



https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/arts/television/unguarded-documentary-about-chris-herren-on-espn-review.html



I chose to read reviews of Unguarded, the documentary I watched prior to last class which tells the story of Chris Herren, an ex-NBA player who struggled with drug addiction throughout his basketball career. I read a review on NewYorkTimes.com that was written shortly after the doc’s release in 2011. It begins by describing the storytelling methodology of the documentary and introduces Herren’s story as well as information about the director. Next, some examples of the more noteworthy, striking, and vivid stories from the documentary are described, likely to build interest since the review is overall quite positive. However, the reviewer does raise some questions about the doc as well as pointing out areas that he thinks were intentionally glossed over, "It’s a highly polished production, and while it feels brutally frank, you can’t help wondering what you’re not hearing.” This questioning portion of the review was what I found most engaging as someone who has seen the doc recently. I already knew all of the information that the reviewer goes over in the early parts of the article, but this analysis helped me think deeper about what I had watched. As this was a review published in a mass media publication like the New York Times as well as online, it seems appropriate that the author gave a good amount of introduction to the story since many people who come across the article likely haven’t seen the doc before. The analysis as the end of the review helped engage me, as someone who had already seen the doc, but I think this genre of review is targeted towards and best suited for people who haven’t seen it yet and may be considering it. The analysis is also vague enough that it doesn’t give anything away, but also provides the reader with something to thing about when they are watching.
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