Tag: British
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A happy ‘Christmas in Notting Hill’ (2023)
Last Christmas, I was disappointed that I saw half of Christmas in Notting Hill on the Hallmark Channel but could never manage to find it in a schedule so that I could watch the rest of it. And then it disappeared for a whole year, until it showed up recently on Netflix. I’ll never understand…
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Why didn’t CONMEBOL watch ‘The Final: Attack on Wembley’ (2024)
The 2024 Euros were played this past month in Germany. For the second time in a row, England failed to win the Final, but at least the tournament ran fairly smoothly. It was just 3 years since the last Final, but if you’ve forgotten what happened at the 2021 edition of Euro Sunday, then let…
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Saving each other in ‘The Beautiful Game’ (2024)
I don’t know why The Beautfiul Game has so many reviews in big publications. Is it because actor Bill Nighy is in his prime, or is it because Director Thea Sharrock and actor Micheal Ward are gaining traction? Or is it simply because it is a Netflix film? If you are the Homeless World Cup…
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‘Broke’ (2022) is launching new careers
Broke is a short film created by ONEIGHTY, a production company of ex-footballers trying to pursue new careers in the film industry. This is not a happy film but it certainly represents many young players who fail to become professional footballers. Food for thought.
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A perfect 10 – ‘Lionesses: How Football Came Home’ (2022)
When a football documentary is really great, it makes you root for and admire the players even though they are normally your opponents. As a long time USWNT fan since WWC 1999, I thought I would watch this docu and maybe learn a few things about England’s WNT, also known as the Lionesses. Instead, I…
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A long farewell to ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 (2023)
Ted Lasso Season 3 was great and satisfying. All the stories were tidily wrapped up. The dialog was often amazing. Ted’s monologues were inspiration exemplified. The football was better. The writers explored new themes and got knee-deep in immigrant and LGBT issues. But Season 3 of Ted Lasso was a little different for me than…
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‘Super League: The War for Football’ (2023) deserves an Emmy
Having already reviewed Fulwell 73’s feature-length film Super Greed (2022), it took me a long time to get around to watching the 4-episode mini-series Super League: The War for Football. After all, how much more does anyone care to learn about a bunch of billionaires for whom football is strictly business. But Oh, what a…
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A Liverpool to remember in ‘The End of the Storm’ (2020)
At the end of the season, English clubs typically issue a compilation of highlight videos. But at the beginning of the 2019/2020 season, Liverpool felt they had a good chance to win the EPL. So they recruited James Erskine to follow the club season-long and work on a documentary, somewhat along the lines of the…
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Review: ‘Sir Alex Ferguson – Never Give In’ (2021)
We just started subscribing to Paramount+, and I was delighted to see that one of the movies available was Sir Alex Ferguson – Never Give In. It’s a delightful documentary that shows the depths and roots of the man, and how his environment shaped his coaching career.
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Review: ‘The Men Who Sold the World Cup’ (2021)
The Men Who Sold the World Cup was produced and directed by Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, two fellows who have built their careers with documentaries that explain corruption and evil-doing in a very accessible and entertaining way. This docuseries shows how corruption is cultivated and how difficult it is to capture the bad guys…
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‘That Peter Crouch Film’ (2023) is a branding exercise
I stopped watching documentaries about current footballers and clubs because they tend to be long infomercials selling their brands. Now I must add to that list: documentaries about former footballers who now have a podcast. It’s just more branding.
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‘Ella, a Modern Day Fairytale’ (2023)
On a mission to promote womens football ahead of next month’s WWC 2023, England Football and Disney put together a 4-min animation called Ella, a Modern Day Fairytale. Narrated by England WNT star Alex Scott, it is a Cinderella story where, instead of going to a royal Ball, little Ella tries out for the local boys…
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‘What Killed Maradona?’ (2020) – his super power
From what I read about Diego Maradona when he was alive, it was not easy to get him or his inner circle to talk about the unsavory side of his life. Drugs, alcohol, gangsters, infidelities, children that he refused to acknowledge, more drugs… To reveal the truth would mean falling out of favor and losing…
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‘Equal Playing Field’ from the top down (2021)
Sometimes to get people to pay attention to your message, you have to do something radical. Like have 30 women climb Kilimanjaro and play an official soccer match at an altitude of 18,800 feet.
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‘Cass’ (2008) is a hooligan movie you should watch
I had resolved not to review another hooligan movie, but Cass is not one of those hit-and-tell stories that glorifies football supporter violence. Instead, this gripping film shows how a young Black man rises above the hatred that surrounds him. In the case of Cass Pennant, hatred comes from many sources: his skin color, which…
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Review – Robbie Lyle’s ‘Football Fans: Under Their Skin’ (2020)
Presented by Robbie Lyle, Football Fans: Under Their Skin gathers together leaders of supporters groups and prominent fans who are all men of color. Some share their childhood experiences in the stands as victims of racism. It is painful to see how those experiences affected them and their parents. And decades on, not only does…
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‘Go Now’ (1995) is a tearful slide into multiple sclerosis
I came upon this old BBC TV movie by chance on Amazon Prime. By the description, it didn’t seem like a soccer movie, but it turns out that the first 30 minutes deliver trope after trope of non-league football from the touchline in 1990s Bristol, England.
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Fulwell73 hits home with ‘Super Greed’ (2022)
Super Greed: The Fight for Football is the first faithful cinematic telling of the 48-hour debacle known as the European Super League (ESL). It will not be the last. Looking back to Apr-2021, you might recall the Super League with blurry pandemic memories. But because this documentary is from Fulwell73 and Sky Sports, whose business…
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‘Africa United’ (2010) is a modern fairytale
Africa United starts off with Dudu, a young AIDS orphan in Rwanda, lecturing even younger boys on the use of condoms to protect against the disease. He then blows up the condom and turns it into a homemade soccer ball.
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North Korean pride and ‘The Game of Their Lives’ (2002)
Only one week ago, the world watched the Argentina vs France final of WC 2022. For me, the tremendous corruption and the controversies of the World Cup in Qatar overshadowed the football that was meant to be the showcase. But if I could put aside the politics, there were cracking upsets, come from behind wins,…
