Reviews of soccer movies and football films
SoccerMovieMom Rating = 4 out of 10 – a little below average
Celebrity documentaries and series have been streaming during the pandemic, flooding our devices and probably our psyches too. The problem is that, there are only so many best-in-the-world sport celebrities. After you get through the stories of what made Ronaldo or Messi great, you fall to the coulda-wouldas, the guys who “coulda been a contender” — if only, if only.
Continue reading “It’s hard to feel sorry for ‘Anelka: Misunderstood’ (2020)”
The actress Vivica A. Fox has had 2 key roles that convey strength or a killer instinct (Independence Day and Kill Bill). She has leveraged these traits to produce a series of 14 “Wrong” movies for Lifetime TV, of which The Wrong Student is the 2nd film.
Continue reading “Just say No to ’The Wrong Student’ (2017)”
Línea de Cuatro might be an unpalatable Argentine version of Diner. Four men in their 30s get together to watch the WC 2014 final between Argentina and Germany. They haven’t been together in the 4 years since their 5th comrade Sebastian killed himself.
Continue reading “‘Línea de Cuatro’ (2016) is difficult to digest”
Infinite Football (original title Fotbal Infinit) is still running the festival circuit and has been favorably described by some very big reviewers, who spout flowery and philosophical essays with sentences too complex to understand. When so little happens in the film, you end up filling the unused space in your mind with meditations on what Director Corneliu Porumboiu is really trying to say.
Continue reading “‘Infinite Football’ (2018) is long and nothing happens”
I’m sorry, but The Trophy Thief did not open my heart. Instead, I feel manipulated, as if the creators are simply playing to sympathies by casting a short-statured soccer player as Ben, the boy who steals an unjustly-awarded MVP trophy.
Continue reading “‘The Trophy Thief’ (2015) doesn’t ring true”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.
Continue reading “‘I Play Soccer’ (2011) at a Sierra Leone academy”
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 soccer team, even though 6-7 of them would rather be cheerleaders.
The flamboyant queens scream whenever the ball comes towards them, but they hang together enough to arrive at the league championship.
Continue reading “‘Sassy Player’ (2009) is a trans-gender soccer romp”
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.
Continue reading “‘Walter’s War’ (2008) leaves much unexplained”
Is this worth watching? When Erik Estrada has top billing, you know it’s going to be cheezy. The best line in The Final Goal is when Estrada’s henchman tells him, “You should have been an actor.”
Estrada is the bad guy bribing 6 players to lose a semi-final game in the Global Cup. The only thing in his way is backup goalkeeper Steven Nijjar, who BTW is also a master of martial arts.
Continue reading “‘The Final Goal’ (1995) is a unique kung fu soccer movie”
On Angel’s Wings is a faith-based family film meant to provide positive African-American role models on the UPTV network. Unfortunately, Writer-Director Aaron Williams stitches together so many model caricatures, he omits telling a story that makes sense.
Continue reading “‘On Angel’s Wings’ (2014) is too much of a fairytale”
It’s hard to believe that Life of Ryan: Caretaker Manager is from Fulwell 73, the same company that produced Class of ’92 and other good football films.
Continue reading “‘Life of Ryan’ (2014) might not be so dull if it were more truthful”
American Pharaoh is Hossam Aboul-Magd’s first shot at directing and is a 60 minute documentary for PBS. Hossam is a one-man film crew, following Bradley and his wife Lindsay during their 2 year residency in Cairo. He became their friend, and perhaps that is why the film is so weak.
Continue reading “‘American Pharaoh’ (2014) too often feels like a home movie”
Rättskiparen is a short Swedish documentary about Martin Hansson, a former firefighter, divorced with 2 sons, who puts football before everything else in hopes of refereeing at WC 2010.
Continue reading “Tough life of an ambitious referee in ‘Rättskiparen’ (2010)”
Coach is a straight-to-DVD film by first-time-feature Writer-Director Will Frears. Hugh Dancy is a slacker and soccer bum in New York City. He doesn’t need to work, but he finds romance and purpose when he takes a job coaching middle school kids to the league championship.
Continue reading “Hard to care about this ‘Coach’ (2010)”
Gracie is one of the few fictional movies where the director and producer work hard to make the soccer look authentic. It’s the story of a soccer-crazed family whose first born son dies in high school, so his younger sister Gracie tries to take his place on the boys’ soccer field. In the 1970s in New Jersey, that required invoking Title 9.
Continue reading “‘Gracie’ (2007) – made by people who love the game”