Tag: R7
-
What if Jerry Maguire were a Japanese ‘Old Rookie’ (2022)
I found this 10-episode Japanese TV series on Netflix, where its English title was changed from Old Rookie to the inexplicable The Old Dog, New Tricks? Perhaps Netflix added the question mark to the title to let us know that they didn’t really know what to do with the show. That’s a shame. It deserves…
-
A captivating tale of a youth tournament in ‘Kids Cup’ (‘Bortebane’ 2021)
The documentary Kids Cup (original title is Bortebane) follows 5 young footballers, ages 13-14, as they prepare for, compete, win, and lose in a huge international youth tournament known as the Norway Cup. If you’ve ever played in or taken your child to a travel tournament, as we call it in the USA, you and…
-
Netflix shows what makes Club América so popular
Club América touts itself as the winningest club in Mexico. This 5-hour Netflix series is entitled Club América vs. Club América because it compares mainly the 2020-2021 season under Manager Santiago Solari with the club’s over 100 year history. Because if you are at the top, you often compete against yourself and your history.
-
Gumption gets Fathima on the Mic (2023)
Even without a soccer setting, Sesham Mike-il Fathima is a drama difficult to categorize. It’s not really a sports film but more about female empowerment as protagonist Fathima pursues her goal of becoming a match commentator in the IFL Indian Football League. The title translates as “Up next, Fathima on the mic (microphone)”.
-
The ‘Inside Story’ (2011) of HIV in a footballer
In 2011, trying to reach a larger audience with AIDS education, the Discovery Channel, UNAIDS, and multiple AIDS organizations sponsored the making of Inside Story. Quizzical Pictures self-describes its film as combining “urban social drama, science exploration and sports in a truly unique way.”
-
Netflix’s ‘The Champion’ (2024) entertains despite small flaws
After watching a month of the Euros and the Copa America, the Netflix drama The Champion (El Campeón) was a welcome diversion. It’s football with a little introspection, a tale that on many surfaces looks shiny and realistic but in some areas is a bit flawed.
-
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…
-
‘The Other Zoey’ (2023) is cute but is not a soccer movie
I watched this young adult/teen rom-com on Amazon. It’s a very cute story about a nerdy girl named Zoey who inadvertently causes soccer player Zach to suffer a concussion. He gets amnesia and mistakes her for the soccer playing girlfriend he recently started dating, who is also named Zoey.
-
Have a laugh with ‘The Outcasts’ | ‘El Matareed’ (2023)
Before The Outcasts, aka El Matareed, Egypt had a pretty long history of funny football films. While much of this film is silly and over the top, I actually watched it twice and enjoyed it both times. The performances are entertaining, and the storylines are more complex than you initially think. In fact, for Egypt,…
-
The Golden Goose – ‘Messi Meets America’ (2023)
When MLS announced Messi was joining Inter Miami FC, I admit I opposed the idea. Messi’s coming to MLS would be a black mark against and devalue his career. It would be the perfect encapsulation of MLS as a retirement league, I thought. Of course, Apple and MLS knew better, and it turned out that…
-
‘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.
-
The business side of womens football – ‘Angel City’ (2023)
Truth be told, I watched the 3-part Angel City docuseries a couple of weeks ago, but I just couldn’t get myself to write this review. The series shows a lot about Angel City FC that I hadn’t known, and I was glad to learn it. But the coverage of the startup and inaugural year of…
-
Times have changed since ‘Pretty Tough’ (2011)
Pretty Tough sat in my Amazon watchlist for a long time, because it looked like one of those low quality movies that was either exploitative of teen girls or from the Christian network. So I was surprised when I found Pretty Tough to be pretty good, and neither exploitative nor religious.
-
‘Hood River’ (2021) captures high school soccer
High school sports often serve as the film setting for a great divide: between rich and poor, Black and White, or urban versus rural. Maybe the greatest high school sports drama is Denzel Washington’s Remember the Titans (2000), where in the racist South, a Black coach and Black and White co-captains unite a newly integrated…
-
‘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.
-
‘Classico’ (2022) is an enjoyable football French farce
Looking for something a little different to watch? Classico is a cute mash-up of comedy and a little romance in the context of a rivalry between ultra but nice football supporters.
-
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ (2022) – not your normal sports documentary
There was so much hype about the Welcome To Wrexham docuseries, I put off watching it until I needed the DVR space for the WC 2022 games. (It’s not like Ryan Reynolds is going to read this review.) But if you’re wondering what to watch in the deluge of streaming sports docuseries, Wrexham is unique because…
-
‘FIFA Uncovered’ (2022) the World Cup of Fraud
If you did not have the energy to read the 2014 Garcia Report, the Netflix docuseries FIFA Uncovered is an excellent way to get all the facts in a very visual mode. Director Daniel Gordon interviews journalists, authors, and media experts as well as key principals formerly inside FIFA, and the Qataris who bought the World…
-
‘Thirteen Lives’ (2022) entertains but is not the best rendition
I wasn’t planning to review Thirteen Lives, Ron Howard’s dramatization of the 2018 Thai Cave Rescue. After all, I had already reviewed 3 other films covering the story, and this isn’t really a soccer movie. In fact, wikipedia has placed it in the genre of “biographical survival film”. But I noticed that search engines were…
-
How should ‘Rooney’ (2022) be remembered?
There are several things to like about the Wayne Rooney documentary. First of all, it’s only 1 hour and 43 minutes. While that’s 13 minutes longer than it should have been, it’s better than having to watch Wayne, Coleen and the kids play bored games in a long drawn-out series that searches for instagram moments.
