It’s a slam dunk
OLD HAND JOINS ROOKIE ACTORS WHO ARE CONVINCING AND ENDEARING
CHAMPIONS (M)
Director: Bobby Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary) Starring: Woody Harrelson, Madison Tevlin, James Day Keith Rating: ★★★☆☆ Same old game, but a worthwhile new result
Like many a movie where a small sporting underdog is faced with some big odds to overcome, Champions has a very familiar path to follow.
Our heroes will start out with no chance at all. Then their luck will change a little, until it starts to feel like they might have some chance after all.
Finally, there is the big game, the final result of which will go right down to the wire, with an outcome sure to have an audience punching the air in triumph.
While we have definitely seen this kind of movie many times before – and undoubtedly will do so again – there is no way anyone will resent the well-worn track taken by Champions.
To put it simply, there is a uniquely irresistible and upbeat chemistry shared by the cast of Champions that casually ushers all cynicism out the door.
Woody Harrelson anchors the story in the central role of Marcus, a former star basketball coach whose designs on breaking into the NBA big-time have been decimated by two unfortunate incidents in the one night. First of all, Marcus pushes over a fellow coach during a televised game that becomes an instant meme on social media.
Then Marcus goes out to a local bar to drown his sorrows, an illadvised move which ends in a drink-driving charge.
The judge hearing the charges against Marcus issues an ultimatum: the defendant can do a stretch in prison for 2 years, or fulfil a community service order for 3 months.
Of course, Marcus goes with the latter choice, which is the sole twist of fate needed to have him coaching a local special-needs basketball team known as the Friends.
It is here that Champions reveals the impressive set of trump cards that will keep you watching right through to the end: its predominantly disabled supporting cast. Though a majority of the Friends are complete acting rookies, their interactions with Harrelson as Marcus (and their unfiltered reactions to some of his more questionable antics) are invariably as convincing as they are endearing.
The three standouts of what turns out to be an all-star team line-up are Madison Tevlin as Cosentino (both the only female player for the Friends and its most earthily outspoken member), James Day Keith as Benny (at loggerheads with an insensitive employer who won’t let him play away games), and Bradley Edens as the trick-shot specialist Showtime (who will only ever shoot from outside the three-point line, and never when facing the right way).
Champions is in cinemas now
TO LESLIE (M)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Selected cinemas
When we first lay eyes on her, Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) is not just down and out. She is well and truly done. Six years earlier, a six-figure lottery win had handed Leslie a ticket out of small-town oblivion. Instead of doing the right thing and buying a house that she and her teenage son could live in, Leslie made every wrong move imaginable.
Now, having partied and drank away every last cent in her bank account, Leslie is left with nothing but a small suitcase holding all of her worldly possessions, and a big, bad bomb of self-destruction ready to explode inside her head at any moment.
Will this barely functioning alcoholic wipe herself out once and for all, or will she find a way back into the world she left behind?
Thanks to an extraordinarily compelling and authentic performance from Riseborough, this tough, no-nonsense drama will be keeping viewers awaiting the correct answer for an unbearable period of time.
Make no mistake: this is a fearless, worrying work of highwire acting that thoroughly deserves the Best Actress Oscar nomination that came its way (even if the well-meaning intercession of Riseborough’s celebrity supporters rubbed some folk the wrong way). Co-stars Alison Janney, Marc Maron.
LUTHER: THE FALLEN SUN (M)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Streaming from tomorrow on Netflix
Fans of DCI John Luther can rejoice: Idris Elba’s textbookshredding London copper is back in fine form after a lengthy absence.
This feature-length return to active duty takes place shortly after the tension-riddled events of the last series of Luther.
A wellresourced hi-tech crook named David Robey (Andy Serkis) goes out of his way to draw the law’s attention to some highly problematic black marks on Luther’s track record.
With Luther banged up in jail, Robey is free to put a sinister new plan into action until our fallen hero makes the unsurprising decision that incarceration just isn’t for him.
What follows is a riveting game of cat-and-mouse that pitches Luther in fugitive-on-the-run mode against the mercurial mastermind that is Robey. Trying to make sense of it all from a frustrating distance is the hardboiled Police Inspector Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo).
Newcomers to the Luther effect won’t feel too cut out of the loop here, while longtime devotees will welcome the upscaling of production values afforded by a bigger budget than the TV version.
As for the ever-impressive Elba, let’s just say the break from this demanding character has recharged his batteries in the best possible way.