51
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88USA TodayScott BowlesUSA TodayScott BowlesInspired 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.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesToo fawning to be consistently gifted, but it manages to be occasionally, perhaps accidentally, profound.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceThe film works not just because it makes golf enjoyable to watch, but also because, by the end, you get to know these kids. It would be nice to see how they're doing in seven years.
- 70Los Angeles TimesAnnlee EllingsonLos Angeles TimesAnnlee EllingsonGreenbaum 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.
- What Greenbaum captures is compelling, and occasionally uncomfortable to watch. Sports in their purest form are played by children, who are — most of the time — much too young to be tarnished by professional-level jealousy, scandal, sacrifice, and unfair expectations.
- 50The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas Rapold[Mr. Greenbaum] is observant of tears and laughter alike, but he might have made fewer sacrifices in the name of a tidy package.
- 40The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasThe Short Game is like a tape-delayed Olympics: old footage, slick bios, no substance.
- 40New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSome 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.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeA technically polished but mostly unmoving example of a genre (the watch-kids-do-something-hard doc) assumed to be inherently charming.
- 38Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezThis window into the world of youthful competition almost entirely disposes of social awareness in favor of routine drama.