Directed by: Bobby Farrelly
Written by: Mark Rizzo, Javier Fesser, and David Marqués
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Kevin Iannucci, Madison Tevlin, and Matt Cook
An underdog storyline enhanced through meaningful moments of understanding and personal growth.
Marcus (Woody Harrelson), while driving drunk and mourning the loss of his assistant coaching position, hits a police car stopped on the side of the road. Leading him to the ultimate court-ordered choice between community service coaching or incarceration time.
Emotionally distant and ignorant of others’ hardships, Marcus begrudgingly accepts the community service. Pairing with the basketball team, Friends, created for players with intellectual disabilities. Noticing Marcus’s angst, the judge recommends that Marcus meet the team as any person would; starting with their names.
Woody Harrelson captivates the audience with mere facial expressions as a character that isn’t particularly kind. Giving way to the expressive actresses Kaitlin Olson and Madison Tevlin, who —with their charismatic and hilarious dialogue and actions— challenge Harrelson’s character, Marcus, which creates a commentary on women’s roles and abilities in the world. These roles include challenging some of the “traditional” roles of women, like playing on gender-designated sports teams or an expectation to be married and moved out by their mid-twenties.
In addition to the developed character roles, viewers experience coaching side-by-side with Marcus, which helps even the most non-sport-affiliated viewer to understand the goal of the sport. But with a lack of hope, Marcus makes this task difficult. After all, it is nearly impossible to coach well when you’re sitting on the sidelines staring at your phone.
But their skills take a turn when Marcus sees the team as more than just players and as people with lives outside of the sport. With a team that is eager to learn and equally as funny, the introduction is needed for both Marcus and the audience.
Director Bobby Farrelly visually guides the audience through the players’ lives on both a shallow level consisting of names and jobs and through a deeper level explaining their personalities and extracurricular activities. The background is narrated thoughtfully by Julio (Cheech Marin), who’s known the team throughout many basketball seasons. This helps guide viewers away from the possible misconception about people with intellectual disabilities. In this, Marcus realizes the importance of knowing about people’s lives, like Benny (James Day Keith) working at a restaurant or Johnny (Kevin Iannucci) volunteering with animals.
As the film progresses, we meet Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), who is the motivator for Coach Marcus and the team members. Helping the audience realize how the parts of our lives that are unexpected can shape who we are today. Including Marcus’s unexpected life-goal changes that can be largely attributed to his relationship with the Friends and with women.
“Champions” features growth in many of the characters —noted through the lens of Marcus as his messy life moves the scenes forward— but the underdog storyline has many heartwarming moments that make for a captivating film.
Plot: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Cinematography: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Character Arc: ★★★★☆ 4/5
