'Operation Varsity Blues' offers a flawed take on the college admissions scandal

Despite the can't-miss subject matter, "Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal" makes a near-fatal misstep, heavily using dramatic recreations in a way that leaves this Netflix production somewhere between Lifetime movie and documentary. The salacious aspects of the scandal still earn a passing grade, but due to the unwieldy hybrid format, just barely.

Of course, Lifetime already weighed in with its own quickie movie about the topic, but that only scratched the surface. Here, the filmmakers behind the "Fyre" documentary, Chris Smith and Jon Karmen, enlist Matthew Modine to portray the mastermind of the operation, Rick Singer, dramatically reenacting his wiretapped conversations with accomplices and the parents involved. It's a showy way of illustrating what happened, but as is so often true with such endeavors, too cute for its own good, blurring the lines between scripted drama and reality. Make a movie or make a documentary, but ultimately, make up your mind and pick a lane.