The Winning Season-Film Review

Nice film with Sam Rockwell as Bill, a former successful boys high school basketball coach who made a bad decision that cost him his job and is now washing tables at an Applebees like restaurant. The principle of the high school (Rob Corddry in a non asshole role which I'm not accustomed to but a nice job nonetheless) offers him a job to coach the girls basketball team. But there's only six players on the team and they're not very good. Emma Roberts plays the main girl on the team and here's another good performance from this up and coming actress (from Wild Child, Lymelife, It's Kind Of A Funny Story). Another star of tomorrow that you can see blossoming today. A few other girls get some screen time as well as a subplot concerning Bill's daughter Molly who he's having a tough time communicating with her. Added to all this is his continuing alcohol abuse. There are some serious hard hitting issues in this film with some great feel good moments as well. And both come out impressively. What was kind of surprising was the way the film moved to some very broad comedy toward the end of the film (Bill is locked out of the gym because of a plot point and so he is trying to sneak back in to coach his girls and to tell his assistant coach (nicely played by Margo Martindale) what plays to draw up. But even that worked for me and was easily acceptable. If you want to see an uplifting girls sports movie then look no further. Here you go.