I was aware of the hype surrounding Red Army since Cannes this year. However, the fact that I knew so little about hockey cast doubt on whether it's worth to see or not. Stellar ratings and reviews on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes eventually convinced me to see it at AFI Fest last week...and I was totally blown away by it. For starters, hockey is still the main theme here. However, it's not the only dominant element. Gabe Polsky utilized hockey to explore many facets of life such as family, friendship, politics, and patriotism. Furthermore, he found the perfect, complex main character in Slava Fetisov to build the narrative around. Depicted as a poster boy for the Red Army, Fetisov emotionally exposed individual and collective struggles of being a member of the USSR athletic system whilst uncovering the direct link to a larger force at work behind it that is Soviet government. There's no flat moment and it kept me entertained from start to finish. The fact that it has garnered serious Oscar buzz before widely released shows that Red Army is a must-see documentary, whether you're a hockey fan or not.
