By Kristyn Johnson, Contributing Writer
The 2019 college admissions scandal, known as “Operation Varsity Blues,” took the United States by storm. People were shocked to find that famous actors and actresses, such as Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, were part of the scandal.
Netflix released Chris Smith’s documentary “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal” on March 17.
Smith cleverly created the film as a mix of a documentary and reenactments, as the documentary shows the privileged behaviors among the wealthy. In the documentary, the celebrities are willing to do a lot for their children to get into elite colleges and universities.
The film begins by showing unprivileged kids waiting to see if they got into their top choice for college. Their excitement once they found out they got in is priceless and genuine. It shows a genius comparison between the wealthy and the regular. It shows the difference between the gratefulness of an education.
In the mix of a documentary and reenactments, Matthew Modine plays the part of Rick Singer, the mind behind the “side door.” The side door, the term Singer coined, is donating to his organization and his team will find a way to get kids into their top school. The documentary showed that people had previously known of the “front door,” which is the equal and just way of being accepted and the “back door,” which was donating large amounts of money to a school in hopes their kid would be accepted. Singer developed this side door to guarantee the wealthy’s acceptance.
In the movie, YouTube star and social media influencer, Olivia Jade Giannulli, is introduced.
Since Olivia had her own platform along with her mother, Lori Loughlin, this scandal shook all of social media. Smith includes video clips from Olivia’s YouTube vlogs, which show her claiming how much she despises school and that she is being forced to go to college. This is a perfect contradiction to the less fortunate kids getting into their top schools. It shows the difference between the two and their desire for higher education.
Smith shows a photo taken of Olivia on a rowing machine to be photoshopped by Singer and his team. Loughlin and Giannulli paid $500,000 and falsely stated Olivia was on the crew team to get them into USC.
Smith ends the film by showing the wealthy and privileged with their jail sentences. Smith showed the privilege that the wealthy hold during college admissions, while there is already an unequal playing field.
He was able to shock his viewers by explaining the details that went behind getting these privileged kids into their top college choices.
johnsokr19@bonaventure.edu
