After years of coming so close to an NCAA Championship that he can taste it, he is now faced with his best chance to bring home the win. 6. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Stephan James and JK Simmons to Star in College Sports Drama National Champions From Ric Roman Waugh, JK Simmons Found Out He Landed His Spider-Man Role From a Fan, Clydes Broadway Review: Uzo Adubas Devil Wouldnt Be Caught Dead in Prada. Its a two-hour pregame show, with no game. Additionally, Russell Wilson, Malcolm Jenkins, Jemele Hill, Mike Greenberg, French Montana, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Steve Levy all appear as themselves in the film. Is the title National Champions meant to be an ironic comment on the control and commerce around collegiate sports, or simply a winking answer to the possible outcome of a game audiences never get to see played? But the story, written by Adam Mervis, was based on his own play. Maybe football donors dont have great style in real life, but this is still a movie that looks like a network TV show. This may explain the recent rise in sports movies that spend more time in conference rooms than on the field: Moneyball, Draft Day, High Flying Bird, Concussion, etc. Edited by Liz O. Baylen and Mike Benoist. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnairehere. Hes self-righteous and possibly dishonest about a career-changing injury that jeopardizes his status as a future number one NFL draft pick. National Champions is a behind-the-scenes sports thriller that takes place 48 hours before the hypothetical teams, the Wolves and the Cougars, face off in the college football playoff game. There are definitely heroes and villains here, but the question of remunerating college athletes isnt one that can be answered quickly. Simmons brings his usual brash Again, there are no clear-cut answers handed out here, and the film never lectures you about whos right or wrong. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Simmons starts the film as wholly sympathetic, unwilling to play dirty with the NCAAs fixer, played by an amazing Uzo Aduba, who he knows can destroy lives with the touch of a button on her ever-present smartphone. Rather than leaning on his terrifyingly authoritative bona fides, hes coaxed to deliver a turn that feels like a halfway point between his role in Damien Chazelles debut and the dad he played in Jason Reitmans Juno, determined to get the game back on track, sincere about his care for his players, but desperately clinging to what until now was the only thing he thought he could rely upon. Additionally, even though it isnt mentioned in the movie, it indirectly raises the more important subject of whether athletes only play one sport. Remember, most college athletes will never play professionally after their schooling is complete. This is shown through LeMarcus' efforts to win over his teammates, going from room to room and giving impassioned speeches about their rights. All rights Reserved. Being about an individual lashing out to stand for the rights and well-being of others, the strongest points of National Champions are its characters and performances. You can stream the film via Apple TV+ or Vudu. National Champions is based on a Mervis play, and the filmmakers havent done a lot to open it up for the screen. WebSeventy-two hours before the championship game, Missouri Wolves Heisman-winning quarterback LeMarcus James vanishes from the team hotel with his best friend, tight end Lil Rel Howery is also here, playing the assistant coach who has a shot of becoming the first Black coach to play in a championship game should Lazor have a stroke or something. National Champions will not be on HBO Max at the same time it is in theaters. But as kickoff of the game looms on the horizon, NCAA executive Mike Titus (Jeffrey Donovan) decides to take matters into his own hands, recruiting a mysterious fixer named Katherine (Uzo Aduba) to dredge up incriminating information to discredit LeMarcus, first about his fitness for professional sports and later about his culpability in a bar brawl that left a bystander critically injured. 3 vs. No. Between the panel shows, the highlight shows, the gambling tips, the recruiting reports, and the in-depth statistical breakdowns, the average fan is expected to know just as much about their favorite teams players as the coaching staff does. They eye-openly stick to their principles by admitting there are no easy answers. Rachel LaBonte is one of Screen Rant's core news editors, as well as a feature and movie review writer. The Champions. Waugh mines emotion from all the right parts, and he effectively sends the message that college athletes are not to be overlooked. 4 vs No. Still, with complex characters and fantastic performances, National Champions offers a vital take on a developing issue. This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date. Bordon was not one person but a pair of identical twins. [11], Boxoffice Pro projected the film would earn between $750,000 and $2.5 million in its opening weekend. This rich-as-hell man steps into the room and, after talking about his junk being hors de combat and his wife leaving him, tells these broke-ass kids that money isnt shit. Hes also one for the ladies, so much so that he infected his whole team with Covid-19 (with this set in a vague post-Coronavirus era where no one needs to wear masks anymore). As the tournament generates billions of dollars in earnings for their institutions each year. Tick Tick Boom chose to embrace the artifice and shoot obvious theater sets, and basically no one can compete with the way Steven Spielbergs camera dances in the new West Side Story. While the dramatic conflict is ripe in National Champions, a timely sports drama based on the play by Adam Mervis, the movie fails to rise above its weighty premise. The casting directors try to brute-force some excitement by throwing a bunch of stars at the material. The film stars Stephan James, J. K. Simmons, Alexander Ludwig, Lil Rel Howery, Tim Blake Nelson, Andrew Bachelor, Jeffrey Donovan, David Koechner, Kristin Chenoweth, Timothy Olyphant, and Uzo Aduba. If nothing else, he does get to recite Samuel L. Jacksons Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction for no reason. for language throughout and sexual references. However, shes right when she warns James that if he wins and athletes start getting paid, any college sport thats not a moneymaker like football and basketball will get cut. As everyone from his head coach (J.K. Simmons) to the NCAA's chosen fixer (Uzo Aduba) attempts to nip the strike in the bud, LeMarcus must confront his true motivations if he's going to succeed. Learn how your comment data is processed. Sweet Tooth Aimee Eden, Explained: Is Aimee Dead Or Alive? She is determined to undercut James at all costs. WebNational Champions is a 2021 American sports drama film directed by Ric Roman Waugh, based on the play of the same name by Adam Mervis. While HBO Maxwhich is owned by Warner Mediahas been the streaming Check it out! Most notably, she wrote for Emerson's website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson's student awards) for Best Review. James and his compatriots demand to change this too, as they call for an abolishment of the student-athlete designation and want to unionize the system with every student who plays in the college league being treated as a worker and not merely as a student. Frank Liesenborgs
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