Champions: re-ups late-90s comedy vibe for audience-pleasing sports dramedy
Bobby Farrelly's first solo directing outing brings laughs, character, and heart, in an affable early aughts light comedy retread
Champions, USA, 2023, 124 mins | Comedy, Drama, Sport | Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson | Director: Bobby Farrelly | Writer: Mark Rizzo, based on: Javier Fesser and David Marqué Spanish film Campeones | Dist. by: Focus Features
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Champions is a new comedy and sports-drama from Bobby Farrelly (Me, Myself, and Irene and There’s Something About Mary). This is his first solo outing since the Farrelly brothers pressed pause on their 90s and early aughts co-directing ventures following the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To. The two have since embarked on solo careers to continued success. His brother Peter’s 2018 drama Green Book went on to win the best picture Oscar in 2019 and recently he delivered The Greatest Beer Run Ever for Apply TV+.
Bobby’s latest effort, Champions, Despite its respectable $5MM plus debut at the box office, is being quietly ignored by mainstream media, who have met it with tepid enthusiasm at best. In its second week, it has dropped only 41%, bringing in a cume of $10.5MM thus far. These are respectable post-pandemic numbers for any low-to-mid-budget movie, let alone a comedy, which audiences have been holding out for home viewing options. In contrast, those returning to theatres for more than visual spectacle are discovering a pleasing film and lifting it up with steady word-of-mouth.
The early break-out Farrelly brother’s films from the 90s, Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, and Me, Myself & Irene, still hold an impression in this film buff’s DNA. In line with these expectations, I found this film perfectly affable, charming, and feel-good from start to finish, with less “gross-out” from their earlier efforts, though a few staples remain—hello projectile vomiting. Sure, it’s constructed on a formulaic script. Still, one that is well-plotted and never sags, delivering laughs, genuine sentiment, and endearing characters brought to the screen by an irresistible cast.
The film’s A-story, a time-worn underdog to champions sports narrative, takes a clear-cut route but is not without its heart-warming surprises. Alongside it, the romantic B-story of a last chance for love between Marcus (Woody Harrelson) and Alex (Kaitlin Olson) is particularly strong, with great chemistry between them. Olson especially delivers an endearing performance, handled nicely by Farrelly, who lenses it as a mid-career star-making turn. Her presence likewise brings out some of Harrleson’s most tender moments later in the film when the two reach an impasse.
The film does exactly what we need it to. It reminds us that investing in people is where the wealth of life resides, not in attaching ourselves to prestige brands to raise our status. In this case, Woody Harrelson’s Marcus, perfectly cast as a disgruntled basketball coach still ascribing his self-worth to an elusive position in the NBA, treats both romantic intrigue and friendships as purely transactional, calculating them in line with his career visualizations, taken from the one book he owns. A tactic Alex lands a few choice gibes at.
Marcus is an unhappy minor league assistant coach in Des Moines, Iowa. Frustrations with his head coach and long-time friend, Phil Perretti (the always affable Ernie Hudson), boil over at the film’s start when he oversteps his authority by contradicting his plays. He picks a hill to die on late in the game by exceeding his position. As a result, the two end up in a shoving match. Phil gets accidentally knocked down, leading to Marcus’ immediate suspension and ultimate firing. As a result, he drowns his misery in booze and arrogantly gets behind the wheel. A DUI incident follows; while rubber-necking a street arrest, he rear-ends a police cruiser.
At sentencing, Judge Mary Menendez, played in a slyly self-aware, no-nonsense cameo by Canadian actress Alexandra Castillo, orders him to serve 90 days of community service coaching a team of intellectually challenged players. As the proceedings conclude, Marcus struggles with the “r” word when delicately wondering out loud what to call “them.” Of course, this assumes not a single person in the audience has been paying attention to progressive politics for the last two decades, which, thankfully, is the lowest point of the script. However, it yields a great line from the judge, “We call them by their names.”
The striking Kaitlin Olson (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) plays Marcus’ romantic interest, Alex, with the proper calibration of snark meets come-hither. According to script writing rules, she must start off on the wrong foot, which she and Marcus do on a “swipe right” date that gets stale before the morning brew can percolate. Olson demonstrates her ease with comedic banter and, much to our delight, returns as the main love interest when her son Johnny is also one of the “Friends,” the team Marcus is ordered to coach.
Olson’s casting is spot on as Alex, a Shakespearian actress running her own school production company while being the mother of a special needs adolescent, gives Marcus all the empathy-building opportunity he requires, should he be wise enough to grasp it. Their chemistry, driven by Olson’s screen presence and Harrelson’s dilated pupils, is infectious, frustrating us with their inevitability through palpable romantic tension and driving the B-story right through to the end.
The Friends consists of Cosentino Madison Tevlin, Darius Joshua Felder, Johnny Kevin Iannucci, Cody Ashton Gunning, Craig Matthew Von Der Ahe, Blair Tom Sinclair, Benny James Day Keith, Arthur Alex Hintz, Marlon Casey Metcalfe, and Showtime Bradley Edens. They are brought to life respectfully through endearing performances laced with a requisite dose of sex jokes. It’s refreshing to see them given full lives and not suffer through contrived humiliations to milk knee-jerk sympathies. Instead, the movie invests significant time in their work-a-day lives to highlight Marcus' chief flaw: taking people for granted. As he comes to understand his players more, head coach Phil returns midway through to underscore this glaring blind spot.
Some of the key Friends who drive parts of the narrative include the female ringer, Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), introduced in the trailer. She motivates the team behind Marcus’ back, filling his experiential gap. Darius (Joshua Felder) provides another of the story's hooks. He can play well but refuses to play for Marcus for reasons he must discern and overcome if his team has a fighting chance at winning. As well, Benny (James Day Keith), another strong player oppressed by his boss (another famous Canadian, Sean Cullen) at a fancy restaurant where he is kept hidden in the kitchen washing dishes, is never given time off to play for the team but must find a way to get free of his workplace tyranny for the big game.
All along, there's reliable Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), Alex's son, who is learning to give coach Marcus a euphemistic hard-on by executing the perfect pick-and-roll. But he keeps freezing up like a statue at the crucial moment. An issue his Shakespearian actor mom ends up being the most capable of handling with a bit of help from the Bard. Filmed in Des Moines, Iowa, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, the latter providing the locale for the championship game. The wintery setting, enhanced by the talents in front and behind the lens gives the film the feel of a Canadian movie, well made.
The argument coming from some corners is that the Friends serve only to support Marcus’ growth and not their own. This is an obvious point to make, attempting to twist it for virtue signaling. However, that’s how stories work. We follow the hero’s journey, or in this case, the anti-hero’s journey. We’re interested in their growth as we experience the story’s events through them. The Friends are perfect as they are. They only lack the guidance to learn to work together as a team to experience what being a champion means. To deny this story and these actors the exposure and screen time they are now getting means that both would remain unseen and uncelebrated.
Omissions due to perspective are the essential decisions of storytelling. It’s always important to be aware of it. In this story, it is Marcus who needs to grow, and as surrogates, many of us in the audience, myself included, who are not exposed to special needs issues on a daily basis, can grow through empathy. Whether you like the perspective or not is a matter of personal taste and conditioning, not fact. The story works as constructed. The lens we’re looking through to absorb this world, in this case, Marcus’, does not negate it.
Champions is a fun movie for general audiences and a great watch to share with family. As a sports film, the story is a familiar one, although not without heartwarming surprises in tow. As a comedy, it is thankfully lighter than its 90s pedigree. However, it shines brightest in its romantic B-story and overall heart generated by its supporting cast and their journey as a team. It does so without flagging during its two-hour run time, providing engaging sentiment. You may even come away with a new appreciation for what these folks can do and the level of care their parents, guardians, and coaches invest. It also presents a dignified watch for anyone with intellectual challenges who can see themselves reflected on screen in a comedy that delivers laughs and heart not at their expense but from the contributions of their talents.
Rating
4/5
N.B. This year’s Special Olympics summer world games is in Berlin, Germany, less than three months away, on June 17-25.
N.B.B. For more information on the Special Olympics, click here. Click this link to read the announcement of this winter’s cancellation of the games due to the war in Ukraine.
As you can see, my take lines up with audiences on this one:
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What do you think of Champions? Do you side with some critics burying it with backlash, or do you see yourself enjoying it for what it is a feel-good dramedy?
It was great to bump into you, Mr. Cinema tonic in the flesh at this screening (albeit I watched Inside and not Champions). I did observe the audience when they exited the screening, - there was a particular large group of special needs audience members (of maybe 15-20 people) who seemed to have particularly enjoyed it. They were glowing. And a CInexplex worker asked one of them if they liked it and their exchange was heart-warming and full of joy. It looks like it charmed and danced and was a fun watch. Thank you for your film review! With this much analysis going on, I look forward to seeing your creative work!
Thank you for your kind comment James. It was lovely to run into you as well irl! Yes the audience of special needs that filled up several of the first rows in the cinema seemed to have a great time. Their energy was infectious. It was funny to hear some outright gross out squirms during the mildly intimate scenes. Definitely a fun watch, and when I saw those rows sold out I was eager to experience it with that audience. Thanks for reading and your support. We’ll see where it am leads. Looking forward to our next run in :)