We've always thought that Sam Rockwell has had a curious career ranging all over the place and recently with The Moon and now The Winning Season, he seems that he wants some serious recognition playing an alcoholic looking for some redemption.
The Winning Season was a bit of a critic's darling during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival for an indie sports drama, but then like many acquisitions at this festival, Sam Rockwell's film languished but is finally getting a small release this week September 3, 2010. We saw this last year and enjoyed it as we do sports movies, especially football. It reminded us of a cross between Hoosiers, a more dramatic Bad News Bears (the original, not the godawful Billy Bob Thornton remake), Bad Santa (where Billy Bob Thornton was brilliant) and Promised Land (for those that saw Meg Ryan's very first movie before she became America's darling).
The Winning Season is so much about growing up with all that hope that you can be anything and do anything you want; your possibilities are endless, but then something happens along the way and the possibilities just don't arise. Or they have arisen and you were too scared to take that opportunity and wound up living the life you hate and trying to push kids into your dream and damning them for having the chance to do it.
In The Winning Season, Sam Rockwell plays Bill, a former coach turned professional alcoholic who's now a busboy at a local TGIF style restaurant...at least it's not the dreaded Olive Garden! One night, an old friend of his, who's a principal at the local high school stops in to offer him a job coaching basketball. When Bill realizes it's for a girls basketball team, he's insulted at first but naturally takes the job. He's a total asshole and throughout the film stays true to his character and the girls on the team grow to love him for who he is.
Best movies ever liked The Winning Season for not getting to much into the insulin inducing syrupy mushy redemption film. The film paces itself wonderfully and we slowly watch as Bill realizes that while he's helping the team progress, they in turn are helping him heal into a human being again. The Winning Season is worth checking out.
Indie Genius has been making movies for over a decade but we also like to review and help promote other films. To check out the site that's getting all of Hollywood's attention go to: Best Movies Ever. To see our movie review for The Winning Season go here Pat Tillman Story