‘The Brittney Griner Story’ Review: A Compelling but Limited Look at a U.S. Basketball Star’s Russian Ordeal

Given the sensational aspects of her story, it was perhaps inevitable that star basketball player and former prisoner of the Russian state Brittney Griner would eventually become the subject of a film in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series. Griner’s basketball career was perhaps at its peak — both in the U.S. and abroad — when she was arrested at the Moscow airport after customs agents found nearly empty Thc vape cartridges in her luggage, charged with a harsh drug charge, and eventually sentenced to nine years in what is essentially a gulag. Upon her arrest, Griner near-immediately became a political pawn used by the Putin regime, while family back home desperately advocated for her release.

Griner’s frightening ordeal is methodically recounted in Alexandria Stapleton’s The Brittney Griner Story, a straightforward, unflashy film that centers on Griner and her wife Cherelle as they navigate the arduous months that Griner was detained.