Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Winning Season



Hoop Dreams--A Very Familiar Underdog Story, But Not Without Its Charms
Imagine everything good or bad you could say about an underdog sport's story. There have been down-on-their-luck coaches paired with mismatched teams more times than I care to count in films with varying degrees of success. The indie charmer "The Winning Season" offers absolutely nothing new in the realm of sport's movie cliches. But if you're going to take a tried and true formula, at least make it likable and do it well. And here is where "The Winning Season" excels. Even though the film offers little to surprise you, there is a talented cast that will have you rooting. And sometimes that's enough!

Of course, it doesn't hurt when the coach in question is the always interesting Sam Rockwell. The eccentric Rockwell is easily one of our more underrated actors, and in "The Winning Season" he employs his hangdog charm to good affect. A former basketball player and coach, Rockwell's volatile temper has reduced him to busboy status at a local Indiana eatery. With no...

A Minimalist Movie, But Exceptionally Well Done. Enjoy!
I sorta like a sports movie now and then, so when I spotted "The Winning Season" starring Sam Rockwell and Emma Roberts in the five-dollar DVD bin at Wal-Mart I picked it up. It was concerned with small-town Indiana girl's high school basketball, surely not the most glamorous of team spectator sports. Rockwell, a former basketball star, got the chance to be the coach of a six-girl, rag-tag team. He was not enthusiastic, to say the least, but it lifted him out of a temporary bus-boy job. He quickly endeared himself to the girls and other high school employees and was widely regarded as a rear-side body opening, the euphemism of which begins with an a and ends with an e. It's one of the more commonly used words in the movie, and it fits. Even he uses it.

In any case, the whole story is practically a sports cliche and you all know what's going to happen. The rag-tag team will have a few big early losses, then somehow find themselves, then start to win and finally get into the...

Very enjoyable
Surprising sleeper that was more enjoyable than any bloated, over-hyped blockbuster crap that I have seen in recent memory, Watch it!

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