The Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, made their name with blunt slapstick comedies such as There’s Something About Mary, Me Myself & Irene and Shallow Hal – films with a gross-out edge that tended to delight audiences while dividing critics. Peter (who took the solo directing credit on the brothers’ first hit, Dumb and Dumber) struck awards gold with Green Book, a bland period road movie that became the Driving Miss Daisy of its time when it won the Oscar for best picture in 2019. Now Bobby makes his solo feature directorial debut with this very likable sports comedy – a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (inspired by the real-life story of the Aderes basketball team in Burjassot) that delivers belly laughs and heartfelt charm in equal measure.
Woody Harrelson, who starred in the Farrellys’ 1996 bowling comedy Kingpin, plays Marcus Marakovich, an irascible assistant coach working in minor league basketball whose life unravels when he fights with his superior Phil (Ernie Hudson) on court and then drunkenly rear-ends a cop car on the road. To avoid prison, Marcus accepts 90 days’ community service coaching “adults with intellectual disabilities”. “Your honour, are we talking re… retar…?” bumbles Marcus clumsily, before protesting: “If I can’t use the R-word, what do I call them?” “May I suggest,” replies the judge, “that you call them by their names.”
