2021 Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
A star quarterback ignites a players’ strike hours before the biggest game of the year in order to fight for fair compensation, equality, and respect for the athletes who put their bodies and health on the line for their schools.
Stephan James J.K. Simmons Alexander Ludwig Lil Rel Howery Tim Blake Nelson Andrew Bachelor David Koechner Jeffrey Donovan Kristin Chenoweth Timothy Olyphant Uzo Aduba David Maldonado Reginald Robinson Tony Winters Russell Wilson French Montana Julian Horton Suzette Lange Mike Greenberg Tre Hale Tedrick Martin Calvin Williams Sarah Fisher Karl-Anthony Towns Jontavious Johnson Mark Anthony Brooks Ned Yousef Therry Edouard Malcolm Jenkins Show All…
내셔널 챔피언스, Национальные чемпионы, 国家冠军
USAR
USAR
USA
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Greenland, Angel Has Fallen), and adapted from a stage play written by Adam Mervis (21 Bridges), National Champions follows star quarterback Demarcus James (Sephan James) and his teammate/best friend Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) as they go rogue and boycott the national championship less than 72 hours before kickoff.
Following the promising lead of other excellent behind-the-scenes sports movies (High Flying Bird, Draft Day, etc), Mervis constructs a savvy and cynical take on the exploitative dynamics of collegiate sports. Tidily scripted & sufficiently nuanced, the film plays out like the stage play it is. Most of the scenes are confined to a single hotel — with a few detours. The staging and pacing are both tethered to the big…
”Yeah, opiates for the masses….”
This languid slow burn of a movie is so passively mellow that it makes Margin Call look like an action packed blockbuster.
And worst of all there’s a phenomenal cast all sitting on the bench with nothing to do….
”We die on the beach, but the plans for the Death Star make it off the island.”
Based on the movie poster I assumed this was your standard underdog football movie with J.K. Simmons playing slightly less of a dick than he did in Whiplash, and actually inspiring his team to great success.
This is not that movie AT ALL.
National Champions is essentially a ‘coal miners start a union due to unfair work practices’ movie, except about college athletes.
I know nothing about college sports so I can only assume that the basics they tell us about the collage athlete experience is accurate…and if so, it does sound pretty bullshit. But this movie really shines when it also makes a point about the negatives that may happen if change does happen to the system.
Now, if…
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Greenland, Angel Has Fallen), and adapted from a play written by Adam Mervis (21 Bridges), National Champions follows star quarterback Demarcus James (Stephan James) and his teammate/close friend Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) as they boycott the national championship less than 72 hours before kickoff. Like other behind the scenes sports films (High Flying Bird, Draft Day, etc), this is a talkie through and through (it is of no surprise that it was written for the stage). Fortunately, it’s got some intriguing things to say.
While I’ll admit this is a bit too topical and on the nose at times (especially for those hyper literate in sports debate gossip), I found National Champions quite riveting. It…
This was decent. I knew nothing at all about the subject matter going into it. The story was actually quite interesting though and it’s pretty faced paced. Cast was good too and deft helped things.
I’d imagine if you watch the sport or have an interest in it then this one is worth a look.
captivating yet also somehow kinda forgettable story about how hard it is to make changes in a system even when it’s blatantly obvious the system’s fucked up. it will not go down as one of the all-time great sports movies but it would serve as a nice explainer for anybody who doesn’t know about the debate surrounding paying student-athletes. a lot of great performances by a cast really full of talented actors and at the same time nothing stood out. the movie is fine; it will keep your attention. it’s just also nothing to write home about. ncaa pay your goddamn athletes!!!
This wants to be Bennett Miller, but it's so Paul Haggis instead. Nothing but folks just rattling off the movie's themes/talking points at one another with sporadic reaction shots to keep some semblance of cinematic rhythm (it's adapted from a play by the writer of 21 BRIDGES...a film I actually enjoyed quite a bit). There's a BIG MOVIE SPEECH delivered by J.K. Simmons that feels like it came from STEP BROTHERS that might be worth the cost of one ticket, but that'd require a bunch of tedium to get to. If Gerard Butler showed up in a surprise cameo (which I honestly expected, given the filmmaking pedigree), I would've bumped this a half-star. Sadly, that is not the case.
Everything about it was pretty medicore, with a story that doesn't always work.
timothy olyphant appeared on screen as a classy dilf within the first ten minutes or so and i lost any and all ability to function for the rest of the movie. jk simmons was great though.
I'm curious about the consequences for the non football/basketball kids. I've always felt bad for student athletes who are expected to give up health and wealth for "glory" while the system reaps billions off them. After being fed the American dream most have to return to reality, which ain't a million dollar NFL contract or home in the Hamptons.
Don't get me wrong, there's also plenty of scandals from students that show how they have benefitted from that system but this wasn't trying to tackle that. They got problems okay? Add it to America's veeeeery long fix-it list.
I think my biggest problem is that it doesn't explore the potential fixes. What is the reality if they get pay or unionize?
I very much enjoyed this dramatization about a star college football player boycotting the National Championship game to demand health care and more for all student athletes. It takes the topic of NIL (Players being allowed to get paid) and expands that in a natural way to cover even more ways that these kids should be taken care of. Stephan James is awesome and gives a couple of very moving speeches. J.K. Simmons, a perfectly cast coach with family problems, likewise provides a strong motivational speech that had me wanting to get up and run through a wall for him, even though I wasn't on his side!
The film feels like a Soderbergh movie. It's a slick, glossy, dramatic, and…
LeMarcus James: a man of integrity? Integrity is a crazy thing because it’s subjective. You can be battling your own integrity and make the right decision for you, and still be blamed by everyone else. Much like our protagonist, who finds himself forgoing the natty chip to fight for a cause he wholly believes can save lives in the future. Yet, to his teammates and coaches, he’s giving up on them, quitting on all of their hard work, turning his back in the heat of battle. What could show less integrity than that? Sports have always been a great test of the trait. While National Champions presents the struggle, it doesn’t hone in on its characters’ dilemma as much as it opts for sensationalizing its events. Had it stuck to the issues and its characters complexities instead of sprinkling in so much conspiracy, it might have been a winner.
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