Naomi Osaka

While she has been personable in her previous press engagements, in the docuseries that bears her name, she is raw. ... It’s an intimate and voluntary peek inside of her brain—one that puts her anxieties and fears on display instead of running from them.

It’s an engrossing blend of contradictions – and Bradley’s calm and sensation-free film makes for an absorbing appetite-whetter ahead of Osaka’s return to centre court at the Olympics.

The docuseries could be called a portrait, its approach less informational than artistic. At the same time, out of its artfully quilted bits and pieces, its searching closeups and surrounding details, it leaves you feeling that you have come to know its subject, rather than merely know about her.

The resulting work is a poetic, nimble and poignant portrait of young adulthood.

A refreshingly quiet and intimate sports documentary, Naomi Osaka peels back the developing layers of the cultural phenomenon who became a household name in the United States after beating her idol Serena Williams at the 2018 U.S. Open.

An informative, rewarding portrait that resists hagiography in earnestly presenting a young woman in progress.

The narrative of “Naomi Osaka” comes in fits and starts, using previously aired interviews to fill gaps and glossing over transitions between coaches, brands and sponsorships without much further probing. Osaka’s personality shines through, but not much else. ... Not quite a tell-all, not quite an impressionistic portrait, “Naomi Osaka” floats somewhere in between with a cautious curiosity that does, at least, reflect its namesake.