Director: Peter Nicks
Stars: Stephen Curry, Bob McKillop, Jason Richards
Synopsis: The coming-of-age story of Stephen Curry, from an undersized basketball player at a small college, to becoming a larger-than-life NBA superstar.
The new Apple TV+ documentary follows the underdog story of Stephen Curry. After reading this first line, you would expect Curry to come from something other than a professional basketball pedigree, but you would be wrong. The son of Dell Curry, who was a first-round pick who played for sixteen years in the NBA and was the all-time leader in points and three-point shots made in the history of the Charlotte Hornets. Yet, Stephen was shorter than his father and slimmer than a thin mint, and virtually all major Division I programs ignored him because of his fragile frame. Even Dell’s alma mater, Virginia Tech, passed on his son, thinking he could never survive playing big-time college basketball. Yet, Curry has gone on to be a four-time NBA champion and two-time most valuable player for the Golden State Warriors, and the all-time leader in three-point shots made in league history. So, how did Stephen go from a recruiting afterthought to the most prolific three-point shooter in league history? Meet Stephen’s left hand, “grit,” and his right hand, “determination,” and the result is the smoothest stroke on a jump shot the world has ever seen.
Stephen Curry: Underrated follows the modern NBA legend through two different timelines. Starting from the beginning of his 2022 season, he was injury-plagued, but leads to his setting an NBA record and winning his fourth championship. The other timeline takes us back to his days as a high school player who fought and clawed his way to a Division I scholarship offer from a small private liberal arts school in North Carolina called Davidson College. And when we say tiny, we mean it because the school has fewer than two thousand students enrolled. Playing in one of the lowest-rated Division I college basketball conferences, Southern (the school has moved on and upgraded since, playing in the Atlantic 10), it appeared Curry would have a challenging time carving a niche for himself at the college level, let alone a professional one, but he did. Leading Davidson to an improbable run to the “Elite Eight” in the 2008 NCAA tournament before bowing out to the eventual champions, the Kansas Jayhawks.
Of course, this is a remarkable and classic David versus Goliath tale, akin to any classic sports story like The Rookie, Miracle, and The Blind Side. Except this is told in documentary form, and director Peter Nicks (Homeroom, The Force) and producer Ryan Coogler interweave both timelines into an exciting and suspenseful narrative. The result rewards the viewer, who witness two unbelievable runs that cement Curry’s place in basketball lore.
Nicks builds suspense by mirroring each timeline. For instance, Curry’s ankle injuries during his rookie year in the NBA and his disastrous opening game shooting slump versus a small basketball program in a preseason-opening game in Eastern Michigan which nearly derailed his college career before it started. Both show his career trajectory on the amateur and professional levels; that’s distinct and not exactly cinematic when most studios are looking for a cyclical narrative that usually determines what stories are worth telling.
That being said, this is a straightforward experience, and even the most apathetic sports fan would not read the story of “The Baby-Faced Assassin,” “Chef Curry,” or my favorite, “The Human Torch.” The documentary is hardly cinema verité and has moments, especially in direct interviews, with a puff-piece feel that is standard in mass audience-aimed documentary films on streaming platforms. Think Jennifer Lopez’s Halftime or Shaun White: Last Run, and nothing close to the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings because this film glorifies appreciation and doesn’t show warts. That could be because there is simply nothing to tell, or because Curry’s career is still thriving. Nicks could have made some headway in showing what it takes to become an NBA champion, but we are only briefly told about how Curry changed his shot and a small moment of the MVP’s workout routine. In short, you must truly understand the sacrifice and commitment it takes to collect Curry’s hardware, and that’s never fulfilled here.
Some of that is replaced by a good message, such as Curry finishing his degree fourteen years after leaving Davidson College a year early to enter the NBA draft. You have to admire that determination, on top of his professional athletic accomplishments and the point the filmmakers (assuming the subject’s desire) wanted to make by including that journey. That makes Stephen Curry: Underrated a perfect family documentary for sports fans and anyone inspired by someone accomplishing their dreams.
Just not as insightful as one could hope.
