Sports Comedies

4 months ago

I was very disappointed by "Next Goal Wins," Taika Waititi's new film starring Michael Fassbender as a failed American coach who, in a desperate move, takes American Samoa, aka the worst team in the world, into the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

The premise is pretty cool, and the movie is based on the documentary of the same name from 2014. Unfortunately, Waititi doesn't manage to do anything of note other than reproduce the clichés of the sports underdog story genre in a fundamentally cinematically uninteresting and self-referentially witty way.

However, this disappointment gives me a pass to make a mini-tribute to sports comedies that you may have missed in recent years. The sports movie clichés are always there, of course, in a reassuring and overly familiar way, but there are also some instances where we see a little more effort (or even sincerity).

So, let's leave out some American sports comedy classics like "Slap Shot," "Longest Yard," and "Caddyshack," as well as 90s movies that we grew up watching on TV like "White Men Can't Jump," "Cool Runnings," and "Happy Gilmore" (all ageless and delightful—fight me in the comments).

In case you missed something from the following and you love the genre, feel free to check them out and write your own suggestions in the comments if you have any.

"Mike Bassett: England Manager" (Steve Barron, 2001) - An underrated mockumentary gem that has deservedly earned cult status. It's like Ted Lasso's dad.

"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (Adam McKay, 2006) - Before Adam McKay was known for his serious works like "The Big Short," "Vice," "Don't Look Up," etc., he was making back-to-back smart-ass comedies with Will Ferrell. And they were good.

"Win Win" (Tom McCarthy, 2011) - Tom McCarthy, in general, is nice, and before "Spotlight," he did some nice indie stuff like "The Station Agent" and "The Visitor." And "Win Win," if you can stand Paul Giamatti.

"Mascots" (Christopher Guest, 2016) - I'm generally a Christopher Guest stan, so I like even his failures, but yeah, even "Mascots" is better than 9/10 comedies out there.

"Fighting with My Family" (Stephen Merchant, 2019) - An unfairly overlooked film from the co-creator of the British "The Office" with a very strong cast including Florence Pugh and The Rock.