Playing with Sharks
| Release Date (Streaming): July 23, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatBradley GibsonMay 21, 2021
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. Read full review
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 21, 2021
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. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJul 27, 2021
Playing With Sharks has its visual thrills but also tells one good story after another, not only about making movies and flirting with death but about the nature of the fish and the steely character of the movie’s human subject. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangMay 21, 2021
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. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 21, 2021
The very personal nature of Taylor’s involvement with these magnificent creatures makes this quite an affecting account of their threatened survival. Read full review
75
The Film StageJuan BarquinMay 21, 2021
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. Read full review
67
IndieWireChristian BlauveltMay 21, 2021
Setting the Taylors’ footage in such a quotidian structure is like setting the world’s most beautiful diamond in a ring pulled from a Cracker Jack box Read full review
60
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanJul 23, 2021
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. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonMay 21, 2021
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. Read full review
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