X
- 2021
- TV-PG
- Disney+
- 1 h 35 m
- 2021
- TV-PG
- Disney+
- 1 h 35 m
Summary Pioneering scuba diver Valerie Taylor, who has dedicated her life to exposing the myth surrounding our fear of sharks.
Directed By: Sally Aitken
Written By: Sally Aitken
- 2021
- TV-PG
- Disney+
- 1 h 35 m
- 2021
- TV-PG
- Disney+
- 1 h 35 m
Playing with Sharks
78
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Pioneering scuba diver Valerie Taylor, who has dedicated her life to exposing the myth surrounding our fear of sharks.
Directed By: Sally Aitken
Written By: Sally Aitken
Where to Watch
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
78
78% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
22% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
78
78% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
22% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Anyone seeking motivation, or just looking for inspiration, will marvel at the life story of Valerie Taylor, her sharks, and her love of the sea. She is a treasure, as is Sally Aitken for bringing her story to the screen.
Even people who felt nervous about stepping into a bathtub after “Jaws” might find themselves giving these denizens of the deep the benefit of the doubt, thanks both to Taylor’s decades of advocacy and Aitken’s moving portrait of grace and compassion in and out of the water.
If the tone of the film is uniformly admiring, Taylor is often critical of the younger woman who appears in these frames, frankly expressing regrets and self-recrimination about those less enlightened days when sub-aquatic hunting was her bread and butter.
The very personal nature of Taylor’s involvement with these magnificent creatures makes this quite an affecting account of their threatened survival.
Playing With Sharks could have easily been another documentary heaping praise onto an individual, but it works so well because it allows its subject to engage with her greatest regrets as much as her greatest achievements.
Playing With Sharks would like to position Valerie as both intrepid diver and valiant activist, but with its focus on thrills and gills, the film goes light on the context needed to reconcile these two identities.
The extraordinary amount of footage, which moves from monochrome, to grainy colour, to vibrant turquoises as technology and time march on, is really a wonder to behold. If, wherever you are in the world, there’s the opportunity to see Playing with Sharks on the big screen, then you should, to fully experience this eye-opening, vivid documentary.
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Production Company
Wildbear Entertainment,
National Geographic
Release Date Jul 23, 2021
Duration 1 h 35 m
Rating TV-PG
Genres
Awards
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
