Year: 2016
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Notes: Best and Worst soccer movies in 2016
For my last post of 2016, I’m starting a new feature: a ranked list of all the soccer movie reviews this past year. Most of these were not released in 2016. But I figure newspaper reviewers write about what’s coming out now on DVD, so I’m recognizing the year’s best soccer movie regardless of release date. Within…
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‘Dennis Viollet: A United Man’ (2016) and a Busby Babe survivor
Rachel Viollet’s documentary may have started as a memorial to her father, Dennis Viollet of Manchester United fame. But as she conducted interviews and collected history, her film also became an intriguing record of how the soccer world changed around him and because of him.
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‘I Play Soccer’ (2011) at a Sierra Leone academy
I Play Soccer is a 6-minute short film about the Sierra Leone football academy run by the Craig Bellamy Foundation. By Stefan Lovgren, the film is more advertising than documentary. Like many soccer movies, I learned more from researching the subject than watching this film.
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A Chilean, Peruvian and Argentine meet cute in ‘Lusers’ (2015)
Lusers is a delightful comedy of cultural differences as strangers from 3 countries travel the Amazon basin to the WC 2014 final in Brazil. Each of the trio (a Chilean, a Peruvian and an Argentine) is escaping a personal problem (thus a loser), but the trip presents even more challenges. They wreck their vehicle, are…
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Every sport parent should watch ‘Concussion’ (2015)
This is a public service announcement. Concussion is not a soccer movie, but every soccer parent should watch it. Writer-Director Peter Landesman used to be an investigative reporter, and he brings that kind of intensity to his film. No one watching this movie can stay in denial about the long-term effects of TBI – Traumatic…
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‘Inshallah, Football’ (2010) explains India’s Kashmiri situation
Inshallah, Football touched me, but I wasn’t sure why I felt that way. The answer was so complex, it took me 3 days to research and understand Director Ashvin Kumar’s persuasive documentary about the decades of conflict in Indian administered Kashmir, aka Jammu and Kashmir.
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‘La Dream Team’ (2016) is mighty fun for the family
Add La Dream Team to the list of really good soccer movies that have sprung forth for our viewing pleasure in the past few years. Réalisateur Thomas Sorriaux accomplishes what American directors seldom do: work comedy into a family film that appeals to both kids and adults.
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The Danish giant-killers of ‘Sommeren ’92’ (2015)
Small country. Wasn’t supposed to be there. Fairytale run. Are we talking about Iceland at Euro 2016? Nope! Before Iceland’s feel-good story, there was a more unbelievable tale. In Sommeren ’92, Writer-Director Kasper Barfoed immortalizes Denmark’s giant-killing performance at the 1992 UEFA European Championship.
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‘The Magnificent Eleven’ (2012) dancing nude footie
Asked what The Magnificent Eleven is about, 80 year old actor Robert Vaughn boiled it down to: “Dancing footie players, nude.” This film is a little more than that, but it does put that nudie footie player thing front and center quite a bit. Or front and to the side. Or mostly, flabby rear end…
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![[Review] Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)](https://soccermoviemom.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/pele-2016.jpg)
[Review] Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)
In their Pelé biopic, Directors Jeffrey and Michael Zimbalist create a loving, lush, and longish ode to the Beautiful Game of Brazil. If you sit back and absorb, there is a lot to enjoy. But it might be the kind of movie that only a soccer fan can love.
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‘Sassy Player’ (2009) is a trans-gender soccer romp
You can look at Sassy Player in two ways: either it’s a screwball comedy, or it’s an LGBT coming of age in Thailand soccer movie. Director Poj Arnon’s film แต วเตะตีนระเบิด is a weird combination of the two genres. The 16 new boys in a formerly all-girls high school are forced to form a school…
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‘Walter’s War’ (2008) leaves much unexplained
While the facts of Walter Tull’s life are exemplary, the fictional film Walter’s War leaves too much unsaid. Tull’s unique achievements, as one of the first Black British footballers, and then as the first Black British officer in Europe’s trenches, are now heralded.
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‘Walter Tull: Forgotten Hero’ (2008) preserves his legacy
Nicholas Bailey says he spent 7 years trying to get this documentary made, and soccer movie enthusiasts should be glad he persisted. Walter Tull: Forgotten Hero covers Tull’s life from childhood to Black British footballer to World War 1 Black British officer and member of the Football Battalion.
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A zany improv mockumentary in ‘Mascots’ (2016)
Watching Christopher Guest’s Mascots, I hadn’t heard such laughter in a theater since It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. 1,400 people showed up for the special San Francisco Film Society screening at the Castro Theater on Oct-4-2016.
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‘Trainer!’ (2013) may stifle your coaching aspiration
How good is Trainer? It’s so good, you will never want to become a soccer coach in Germany. Director Aljoscha Pause follows 3 coaches in the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the German leagues during the 2012-2013 season. The men are under constant pressure from the media. But they are also constantly pushing themselves to…
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‘No Ball Games’ (2012) is darkly funny, twisted humor
No Ball Games is a 7-minute short film that might turn off a typical soccer movie fan. I found humor in it but my hubby did not. It reflects the director’s sense of humor, entrancing the viewer with a boy whose ball goes over a wall into a secret garden.
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‘Planet FIFA’ (2016) 40 years of corruption in 94 minutes
Thank Jean-Louis Pérez for making this documentary. La Planète FIFA is an easy way to trace 40 years of corruption in 94 minutes. Perez specializes in documentaries that center on money and economics as the root of evil, and FIFA gives him plenty of fertile soil to till.
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The villain in ‘Underdogs’ (2013) goes full Zlatan
Why did Underdogs go straight to DVD? This is a fun family film, and to my knowledge is the first soccer movie that is an animated full-length feature film. I saw the trailer at the theater and ever since, I had been keeping an eye out for its release.
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The history and passion of Table Soccer in ‘Subbuteopia’ (2012)
Subbuteopia captures the history and passion for the game of Subbuteo (Table Soccer) and its enthusiasts, who persevered despite Hasbro’s cancelling the product.
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US Soccer history should not forget ‘Redemption Song’ (2016)
Redemption Song is an important piece to watch on US soccer and Afro-American history. It is the true story of the Howard University all-black Mens Soccer team, compressed into a woefully short 16 minutes. The team won the 1971 NCAA championship, only to see it perhaps unjustly vacated and the team put on probation. To prove…
