The Short Game
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Metascore
51

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: The Short Game follows the lives of eight of the best 7-year old golfers in the world as they train for and compete in the World Championships of Junior Golf. The annual tournament held at golfing mecca Pinehurst, North Carolina, brings in 1500 young golfers from 54 different countries and determines who will be crowned golf’s next phenom. In its course, the eight stories entwine to form a fascinating and often funny portrait of a group of very young athletes and their families, in which the narrow-focused, peculiar and highly competitive junior golf subculture becomes both a window into contemporary global society and an inspiring reflection of the human condition.… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by:  Scott Bowles
    Sep 24, 2013
    88
    Too fawning to be consistently gifted, but it manages to be occasionally, perhaps accidentally, profound.
  2. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    Sep 19, 2013
    88
    Inspired and inspiring, this documentary about 7- and 8-year-olds competing for the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship is too fawning to be consistently gifted, but it manages to be occasionally, perhaps accidentally, profound.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Annlee Ellingson
    Sep 19, 2013
    70
    Greenbaum shoots the game play especially well, employing dynamic camera work and kinetic editing to convey the drama of what non-fans might consider a static sport.
  4. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Nicolas Rapold
    Sep 19, 2013
    50
    [Mr. Greenbaum] is observant of tears and laughter alike, but he might have made fewer sacrifices in the name of a tidy package.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    Sep 20, 2013
    40
    A technically polished but mostly unmoving example of a genre (the watch-kids-do-something-hard doc) assumed to be inherently charming.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Sep 19, 2013
    40
    Some parents are mellow, and others have instilled emotional problems in their children. This less-than-illuminating work resembles the spelling-bee doc “Spellbound,” only with a promise of high-end endorsements and far more pampering.
  7. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Ed Gonzalez
    Sep 19, 2013
    38
    This window into the world of youthful competition almost entirely disposes of social awareness in favor of routine drama.

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