The Program (David S. Ward, 1993)

After a couple of poor seasons, pressure is mounting on the coach (James Caan) of a college football team to pull them out of this slump - by whatever means necessary…

I have been trying to write a sports movie for a while. I had heard about this movie via the Action Boyz podcast - they have a near-four hour episode on it - and it sounded intriguing. It was also free to watch on the internet, which raised its stock.

Released in 1993, The Program takes a look at College football/gridiron - a sport I know almost nothing about. 

As part of my viewing, I considered watching a scene which was edited out of the US release after the first week - it involves players laying down in the centre of a road and playing chicken with traffic. The scene was removed after some tragic real-life imitations. In the end, I did not bother. 

While running less than two hours, The Program is an epic treatment of its subject - it takes on a variety of different character perspectives, from a new rookie (Omar Epps) to the Heisman trophy prospect (Craig Scheffer) to the coach (James Caan). 

Its scope exceeds its grasp - Darnell’s (Epps) plotline feels like it could serve as its own movie, while the coach’s willingness to cover up and/or overlook his players’ behaviour so he can get to a championship game (and keep his job) is a darker thread that the movie resolves in the most arbitrary fashion.

What I appreciated about the movie was how dark it was. It takes on college football’s dark underbelly: the way entire schools mould themselves around the ‘program’, while players are treated as disposable pieces on a game board. Players with no other options see football as an economic opportunity, and so losing a game or getting injured carry more existential stakes. 

Lead performer Scheffer is miscast. I know him as the blueblood villain of Some Kind of Wonderful, and he is an odd fit as Kane. He does seem haunted, but there is something missing - he does not feel like the little boy lost the script is trying to present, a man child who makes up for his lack of parental foundation with daredevil antics.

He is not terrible, but he lacks the soulfulness and the pathos the filmmakers clearly intended. 

Omar Epps is terrific as Darnell - cocksure and naive, the movie comes alive whenever he is onscreen. 

Another highlight is Duane Davis as veteran defensive player Alvin Mack. With little screentime, he gives insight into the high-stakes circumstances of the game.

The film is a fascinating smorgasbord - it tries to offer insight into the seedier aspects of the sport, while also trying to provide the same emotional catharsis of underdog sports narratives. That darkness negates the ending, and the arbitrary (and hopeful) wrap-up feels dishonest to what came before.

 

As the movie finished,  I was struck with an epiphany. This movie would work so much better if it was presented in the manner of a Paul Verhoeven-style satire - offering the audience its familiar pleasures but with the bitter aftertaste of the sacrifice and capitalistic greed which underpines it.

In the right frame of mind, the movie can play this way. And there are aspects of the movie which seem to push in this direction. James Caan’s jocular, deceptively easy-going coach comes away looking like an absolute monster, while the steroid-enhanced player Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski in full berserk mode) is a walking signifier of all the games’ worst impulses.

Frankly, considering where college and pro football has gone, the time could not be better for another take on The Program.

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Plus One (Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer, 2019)

Faced with a year of weddings by various friends and family, friends Alice (Maya Erksine) and Ben (Jack Quaid) decide to join forces to take them all on as the other's plus one. 

As they tough it out through various nuptials, the old friends find themselves drawn closer together...

“What is a ‘meet cute’?”

I feel like every time I review a romcom or a thriller it starts with some variation of ‘they do not make this any more’ or ‘I cannot remember the last time I watched a romcom…’

As I mentioned in my previous review, these kinds of mid-budget genres used to be the bread and butter of the Hollywood studios. Now you’re lucky if you get one or two.

I only heard about this movie a few months ago, and I immediately scribbled its title down. 

An independent production picked up and released by Hulu, Plus One is the kind of movie that studios would have been drooling over in the nineties and noughties. The fact this movie stars Jack Quaid, the offspring of one of the genre’s leading lights (Meg Ryan for those who cannot google), feels like a bitter in-joke at the state of the genre.

Interspersed with footage of wedding speeches, Plus One may have some of the aesthetic trappings of an indie (handheld camerawork, naturalistic lighting) but its bones are pure romcom. 

The initial reveal of the characters’ roles: Erskine is the depressed version of a screwball comedy heroine, with Quaid as the deceptively square object of her affections.

Erskine was an unknown quality to me. She is very funny, and manages to thread the needle by not losing the character’s underlying loneliness. The key difference between Alice and Ben is that she is open about her problems and has no time for innuendo or niceties. 

As with his role in Companion, Quaid is playing with the idea of a ‘nice guy’ - the idea being ‘nice’ does not equate to ‘good’. The character is not honest about his intentions, and he has a terrifyingly idealised view of marriage. 

Despite the inevitable romantic close, this is a romantic comedy that does not evade or obscure the realities of relationships - not all of them last, and just because they end does not mean they should be viewed in binary terms of success or failure. 

I was also impressed with how efficient the film is in its story-telling. It manages the trick of presenting as naturalistic, but it never loses track of the characters’ journey. One aspect of the film I liked is how the film placed dialogue and exposition into more dynamic contexts, like a golf game.

Warm without being maudlin, earnest about romance without romanticising it, Plus One is a gem of a movie.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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You're Cordially Invited (Nicholas Stoller, 2025)

Due to a bizarre piece of bad luck, sister Margot (Reese Witherspoon) and father Jim (Will Ferrell) discover they have accidentally double-booked the same venue for their respective family member's wedding.

Despite a truce, the pair begin a Cold War to drive out the other. 

The dearth of theatrical comedies has been an issue for years.

I have been trying to watch more new comedies, and I want to diversify more in terms of what I cover on this blog.

I was trying to recall recent examples to review and this was the most recent example I could think of.

I will not pretend that this movie is good. I watched it on a plane, which might be a qualifier for my judgement: 

I laughed a couple of times, but my biggest reaction was nostalgia for these kinds of high concept romantic comedies.

They seem to have died out on the big screen, and have become more the domain of streaming. This one was released through Amazon but it at least feels vaguely like a real movie.

The one giveaway is that it has that same desaturated digital look that a lot of streaming movies have. 

While I do not think this movie ultimately works, the bones are there.

The script seems to be solid, with legible arcs for each of its main characters, but plenty of space left for madness to ensue. 

The biggest issue may be miscasting, but in a very specific way: stars Witherspoon and Ferrell feel like they are in completely different versions of the same movie.

The movie feels like two halves of the same movie made in different realities that have been merged through some collapse of the multiverse.

One can see a version of this movie with Witherspoon and Jason Bateman or Mark Ruffalo; likewise, one could see a more cartoonish version featuring Ferrell with Tina Fey or Regina Hall.

The actors are both funny, but in completely different ways that do not seem to complement each other. 

It makes the movie kinda interesting as a case study of the clash between Witherspoon’s tightly wound neurosis versus Ferrell’s broad emotional explosiveness.

It might have come off if the movie did not show its final trump card of having our misbegotten leads get together romantically at the end.

It is such an unbelievable conclusion that even the movie seems to recognise how silly it is. 

After Witherspoon realises Ferrell has been secretly falling for her, we get a hilariously awkward flashback montage of Ferrell creepily grinning at Witherspoon after all of their fiery interactions.

It is a legitimately funny sequence that takes advantage of the limitations of Ferrell’s star persona (my man can do a lot of things, but romantic ardour is not one of them), almost akin to the movie throwing up its hands at the contrived finale.

As for the rest of the cast, Geraldine Viswanathan is well-cast as Ferrell’s daughter. She also is one cast member who feels like she can authentically move between Ferrell and Witherspoon’s comic spheres without missing a step. 

If there was any justice in this world, she would be getting the lead in stronger entries in the genre.

Not a complete waste of time, You’re Cordially Invited shows that there are still faint flickers of life in the Hollywood comedy.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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Night Owls (Charles Hood, 2015)

A one-night stand becomes more complicated when Kevin (Adam Pally) discovers a) his paramour Madeline (Rosa Salazar) trying to kill herself, and b) that the home they just did the dirty deed in belongs to his boss...

It is a tired bit that I love movies where the action is set in one location for the entire runtime.

From memory, this was a blank pick I made scrolling through Netflix. 

My only experience of Adam Pally before this were his appearances on Jon Gabrus’ podcast. Rosa Salazar, Battle Angel herself, was even more of a non-entity.

I bring this up because it meant I could go into the movie unburdened by expectations. It is almost impossible to see a movie this way any more - and it paid off.

It is so hard to describe the film without comparing it to a play. It is mostly a conversation between two people, but at no point does it feel stagebound or verbose.

The story is always changing in terms of the characters’ dynamic, and they are constantly moving through the house as they attempt to evade and confront each other.

Pally does a good job as the naive Kevin - this character could have come across as a total doormat (Instead he is wooly rug). 

The character has a clear arc, but the script and Pally are savvy enough to make sure this transformation is not a straight arrow in one direction. One of the film’s tensions is Kevin’s struggle with loyalty to the team and its messianic coach (Peter Krause).

Salazar does not try to shave off any of her characters’ rough edges. One of the most interesting aspects of her character is how she continues to hold a torch for the coach who she has been having an affair with - Salazar plays this rapture out with a knowing resignation. Unlike Kevin, she knows she is as stuck as he is. 

In its clash between these characters, in its own modest way Night Owls is a good movie about the corruption underpinning college sports, and more clear-eyed about deeper issues around misogyny, class and racism are reflected in the public perception of celebrity - particularly when that celebrity is white and male.

Worth a look.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you enjoy something I wrote, and want to support my writing, here’s a link for tips!