‘Stephen Curry: Underrated’ Review: Stephen Curry Goes Back to School in Satisfying Sports Doc
Bill Edelstein If the measure of a good documentary about a superstar athlete is in synthesizing what makes its subject tick, “Stephen Curry: Underrated” gets passing grades. And that’s no small compliment, considering the movie spends most of its time at school, a familiar place for director Peter Nicks, whose previous doc, “Homeroom,” served up a very different look at education. With enough fresh stories to keep basketball fanatics engaged and a coda that every soccer mom will appreciate, this is a film that’s worthy of its subject. Produced in part by Curry’s Unanimous Media, “Underrated” leans on abundant clips of the hoop star’s career and interviews with family, coaches and college teammates, as well as fly-on-the-wall moments that come with the kind of access filmmakers get when the subject helps to drive the project. Nicks casts Curry as an undersized underdog-turned-college phenom who becomes a four-time NBA champion and the greatest long-range shooter the league has ever seen, and completes the circle with Curry working to get his college degree, a casualty of leaving school a year early to go pro.