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“If I can’t say the R-word, what do I call them?” asks Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ), a disgraced minor-league basketball coach sentenced to 90 days of community service coaching the Friends, a team whose players have intellectual disabilities. “Their names,” the judge replies. 

Based on the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones,” Bobby Farrelly ’s “Champions” follows the basic plot of every other inspirational sports movie about a hangdog coach in need of redemption. But it has the added cringiness of using its team of Disabled basketball players solely as a method towards this redemption while completely failing to see their humanity. 

At the film's beginning, Harrelson’s Marcus is arrogant, combative, and every other cliche you’d expect for this kind of character. In 2023, it’s hard to see why we should want to spend two hours watching this guy, even with the signature charm Harrelson brings to every role he plays. His one-night-stand-turned-love-interest Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ) doesn’t fare much better with characterization, uttering abysmal lines like “I’m a woman over 40. I have needs.” But thankfully, Olson finds a few more layers within her performance than the character is granted on the page. 

“I’m sorry, I’m new to this,” Marcus says to Alex after making a major gaffe asking how her brother Johnny ( Kevin Iannucci ) got his intellectual disability. To which she has to explain he was born with Down Syndrome, you don’t catch it. That’s the main presumption of the film: that everyone watching it is new to knowing anything about intellectual disabilities, and therefore it’s continually explaining their existence rather than allowing them to exist. 

In an earlier scene, the rec center manager Julio ( Cheech Marin ) tells Marcus about the personal lives of the team. As his speech plays out over voiceover, we see little vignettes of their jobs and homes. However, the filmmakers never actually bother to spend any time with these characters as they live their lives. Instead, they show the audience their lives from an almost anthropological distance. The filmmakers see them solely as teaching tools for Marcus and the audience, not complex human beings worth spending real time with.

Yet, the script gives the burgeoning relationship between Marcus and Alex plenty of screentime. We watch it blossom from straight sex to dinner in restaurants to Marcus watching Alex perform Shakespeare at her job to Marcus eventually coming over to her and Johnny’s home for their mother’s cheesy meatloaf Monday. 

This lack of respect for the humanity of these characters also comes at the expense of the dynamic cast playing the Friends— Madison Tevlin , Joshua Felder , Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning , Matthew Von Der Ahe , Tom Sinclair , James Day Keith , Casey Metcalfe , and Bradley Edens —whose star power, charisma, and comic timing is wasted in pithy one-liners and dated jokes. 

While each character is given an arc, they are mostly in relation to their goal of making it to the Special Olympics North American Regional Championship. By the time the credits roll, it’s not surprising that none of the actors in the Friends are listed along with the non-disabled stars of the film before the title treatment, given the film’s lack of respect for them throughout. 

Once the team does qualify for the championship in Winnipeg, they, of course, are behind leading up to halftime, with Marcus giving the requisite inspirational locker room speech. The result is perhaps the most cringe-worthy part of the entire film, as Marcus lets them know they’re already champions because of all the “stuff they put up with from ignorant people every day,” further othering this scrappy crew into tokens, despite the film’s good intentions. 

At the beginning of “Champions,” when Marcus is fired from his assistant coaching position, lead coach Phil ( Ernie Hudson ) tells him he needs to know the players on a personal level, not just as ballplayers. The same can be said for the filmmakers, who need to offer the same grace to the Friends and see their whole humanity. 

"Champions" will be available only in theaters on March 10th. 

Marya E. Gates

Marya E. Gates is a freelance film and culture writer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She studied Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley, and also has an overpriced and underused MFA in Film Production. Other bylines include Moviefone, The Playlist, Crooked Marquee, Nerdist, and Vulture. 

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Film Credits

Champions (2023)

Rated PG-13 for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

124 minutes

Woody Harrelson as Marcus

Kaitlin Olson as Alex

Cheech Marin as Julio

Matt Cook as Sonny

Ernie Hudson as Coach Phil Peretti

Madison Tevlin as Cosentino

Joshua Felder as Darius

Kevin Iannucci as Johnny

Ashton Gunning as Cody

Matthew Von Der Ahe as Craig

James Day Keith as Benny

Alex Hintz as Arthur

Casey Metcalfe as Marlon

Bradley Edens as Showtime

Alicia Johnston as Coach Maya

Tom Sinclair as Blair

Mike Smith as Attorney McGurk

• Bobby Farrelly

Writer (based on the Spanish film 'Campeones' by)

• Javier Fesser
• David Marqués

Cinematographer

• C. Kim Miles
• Julie Garcés
• Michael Franti

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Review: The inspiring if formulaic ‘Champions’ translates into a winner

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The Farrelly brothers reigned supreme over comedies of questionable taste in the 1990s and 2000s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal,” “Stuck on You”), but while Peter has gone on to the industry’s highest success, picking up original screenplay and best picture Oscars for his film “Green Book,” Bobby hasn’t directed a film in awhile . He makes his comeback with his “Kingpin” star Woody Harrelson in the sports comedy “Champions,” an English-language remake of the 2018 Spanish smash hit, the Goya Award-winning “Campeones.”

Harrelson plays Marcus, a minor-league basketball coach who is sentenced to community service after a drunk-driving accident and finds himself coaching a team of intellectually disabled adults at a local community center in Des Moines, Iowa. Given the Farrelly track record of dabbling in more outre or offensive comedy, one might be bracing for what “Champions” may potentially deliver, but after an initial fake-out, Farrelly, Harrelson and writer Mark Rizzo deftly thread the needle on “Champions.” For the most part, it is warmly amusing without diving too far into the realm of the maudlin or treacly; and it side-steps anything insensitive while still enjoying some bawdy humor.

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You might also be thinking, “Isn’t this ‘The Mighty Ducks’ ?” — the 1992 kids sports comedy with Emilio Estevez as an attorney who gets sentenced to community service after a drunk-driving accident and has to coach a Minneapolis pee-wee hockey team — and yes, it’s basically the same story. The grumpy coach who has a hard time connecting with people finds himself opening up with his unlikely charges and learning to love the game again, because of the players, not in spite of them. The story does not deviate from the traditional sports movie formula we know so well.

What helps enliven “Champions” is what enlivens Coach Marcus himself — the team, called the Friends, which is cast entirely of actors with similar disabilities to their characters. Some are veteran actors, some were cast from their experience as Special Olympics athletes, and others make their screen debut in the film. One of the standouts, Kevin Iannucci, plays Johnny, whose older sister, Alex ( “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Kaitlin Olson) becomes Marcus’ love interest. The pair grow from Tinder one-night stand to reluctant allies to friends with benefits when Marcus takes over the team, but Alex’s spiky, self-protective humor and Marcus’ ambition to flee Iowa for an NBA job throws up the appropriate hurdles to their romance.

The plot also cribs heavily from traditional romance tropes, with Marcus as a stern striver finding himself charmed (and thawed) by the quirky residents of a small town, a surprisingly steamy attraction and, of course, the players he coaches. It’s not innovative storytelling, but it is effective — there’s a reason why these tropes exist.

“Champions” doesn’t break any molds, narratively or aesthetically, and it’s too long, but what sets it apart are the Friends, who offer warm and nuanced performances, and excellent representation for the disabled community, which has either been largely ignored on film or relegated to inappropriate punchlines or condescending stereotypes. Farrelly and Rizzo, working with the original material of “Campeones,” and the actors, offer a depiction of these characters and their lives as full with responsibilities, relationships, and joy. When Coach Marcus comes along, he’s just the icing on the cake. They were champs before he showed up, and the film is his journey to realizing that.

Katie Walsh is Tribune News Service film critic.

'Champions'

Rated: PG-13, for strong language and crude/sexual references Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes Playing: Starts March 10 in general release

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• Entertainment
• Review: <i>Champions</i> Is a Gentle Comedy That Puts the Spotlight on Disabled Actors

Review: Champions Is a Gentle Comedy That Puts the Spotlight on Disabled Actors

T here are some good reasons to be nostalgic for the late 1990s to early 2000s, and the movies made by the Farrelly Brothers constitute one of them. Though they’re best known for the gross-out jokes in movies like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, the real trademark of the films made by Peter and Bobby Farrelly is their sweetness, and their eagerness— sometimes misguided but never mean-spirited—to make sure every character is treated as a multidimensional human being. Some—like the cartoonishly grouchy guy, in There’s Something About Mary, whose wheelchair bears the bumper sticker “How’s my driving? Call 1-800-eat-shit”—are more irritable than virtuous, but that’s precisely the point: a disability isn’t the same as a personality. And as far as the much-maligned Shallow Hal goes, most people seem to have forgotten about the character of Walt, written by the Farrellys for a man they met in a New England bar, Rene Kirby, who was born with spina bifida. Walt is a rich, handsome, charming software mogul, and as Kirby plays him, he’s one of the most captivating characters in the movie.

With Champions, director Bobby Farrelly returns us to the late 1990s, a time when there were fewer sorely needed guidelines, but also fewer gatekeepers just waiting to catch well-meaning people who happen to trip up. Champions is a reworked version of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones , which itself was inspired by the true story of a hotshot basketball team from Valencia, made up of intellectually disabled individuals. (The Champions script is by Mark Rizzo, riffing on the original by Javier Fesser and David Marqués.) Woody Harrelson stars as Marcus, a shallow and deeply unlikable assistant basketball coach, employed by an Iowa minor-league team. After getting caught driving while drunk, he’s sentenced to 90 days of community service—specifically, coaching a crew of disabled basketball players known as the Friends. It’s the last thing he’d ever do if left to his own devices.

Predictably, Marcus is at first appalled by the team’s playing capabilities, or lack thereof: There’s Showtime (Bradley Edens), who’s got all the right victory-dance moves even though has no idea what to do with the ball; Craig (Matthew Von Der Ahe), who’s preoccupied with bragging about his multiple girlfriends; and Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), who might be a decent player, but whose fears get the better of him—in particular, he’s terrified of water, which means he refuses to shower after practice, or, for that matter, ever. But this 10-player team isn’t particularly impressed with Marcus, either. They eye him with suspicion, or simply refuse to cooperate. The player who’s hailed by the others as the best on the team, Darius (Joshua Felder), stalks off the court shortly after Marcus shows up, refusing to play for him—his reasons are revealed later in the movie.

Marcus goes through the motions of making the best of the situation, only to realize he truly likes these guys. Champions heads pretty much exactly where you think it’s going to go—it does follow the classic underdog-champion template after all—and it also includes the requisite romance: Kaitlin Olson plays Alex, Johnny’s older and very protective sister, a straight-talking wisecracker who reluctantly takes up with Marcus, only to realize she’s falling for him (and the feeling is mutual). As appealing as Olson is, the romance is Champions’ weakest element. And if you miss the trademark Farrelly gross-outs, there is an instance of projectile vomiting to look forward to.

But it’s much more fun just to spend time with the players, and to watch Marcus riff with them. All of the Friends are played by disabled performers, many of whom have never acted before. Yet they’re all naturals—they know how to get laughs, and they relish it. The team’s savior, a firecracker of a player named Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), struts into the movie like she owns it. The other players are overjoyed at seeing her, calling out her name, but with a withering glance she sets Marcus straight right away: “It’s Ms. Cosentino to you.” Her timing is as sharp as Harrelson’s—maybe sharper.

All of that said, Champions is a movie that’s out of step with where we’re at these days, at least in terms of mainstream comedy (whatever that is anymore). It’s tempting to look at a comedy like Champions and roll our eyes, figuring that by now everyone knows that disabled people are individuals with distinct personalities. Of course—but then, why don’t we see more of them in the movies, as characters and as actors? In that sense, Champions is a forward-thinking film masquerading as a deeply conventional one. We can say we’ve seen it all before—but when, and where? We’re so busy being progressive—and pointing our fingers at people who, we’ve decided, are not—that we’re stuck in a rut, having lost sight of the fact that to progress means to move forward. Champions, at least, is trying to do just that, keeping the ball moving every minute. That’s harder than it looks—and a lot harder than calling the shots from the sidelines.

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Champions review – uplifting hoop dreams with Woody Harrelson and co

Bobby Farrelly’s redemptive crowdpleaser casts Harrelson as an irascible minor league basketball coach ​tasked with training ​a team with learning disabilities

T he 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. ”

“You don’t have to turn them into the Lakers,” says recreation centre manager Julio (a nicely understated turn from former gonzo legend Cheech Marin). “They just need to feel like a team.” That team includes Kevin Iannucci’s Johnny (“I’m the homie with an extra chromie!”), an animal-lover with an aversion to showers, whose sister Alex (Kaitlin Olson) has already made Marcus’s acquaintance – albeit briefly. Then there’s Marlon (Casey Metcalfe), a walking encyclopedia who “knows stuff”; Darius (Joshua Felder), a talented player with forgiveness problems who refuses to play ball (“Nope!”); Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), who kicks ass in every sense; and Showtime (Bradley Edens), an “individualist” whose signature move is shooting from centre court with his back turned to the basket. “Has he ever scored?” asks Marcus. “In all the years I’ve known him, he’s never even hit the rim,” comes the reply. “But he’s due. ”

You don’t have to be a sports movie enthusiast to know exactly how the plot will progress; how Marcus’s dreams of landing an NBA job will be unexpectedly boosted by this enforced assignment; how his growing dedication to “the Friends” will be rewarded by a shot at a big Special Olympics prize in Winnipeg in Canada; and how the opportunity of an escape from dreary Des Moines, Iowa, will surface just as Marcus finally learns “to make relationships”. There’s even a smartly deployed use of the now familiar Rocky finale that reliably reminds us that victory lies more in the heart than on the scoreboard.

What makes Champions a treat is the deftness with which Mark Rizzo’s script sidesteps sentimentality in favour of something more raucously truthful, conjuring fully rounded characters with believably messy lives, all delivered with Dodgeball -style sporting chutzpah. As for the cast, they are terrific, with the screen newcomers more than holding their own against more seasoned players. Of course, the Farrelly brothers have a long history of diverse casting, with the US philanthropic Ruderman Family Foundation presenting them in 2020 with an award “in recognition of their advocacy for the inclusive and authentic representation of people with disabilities in the entertainment industry”. But the Champions ensemble takes this to the next level, showcasing a host of rising talent, with particular plaudits to Tevlin and Iannucci, both of whom have scene-stealing charisma and note-perfect comic timing to spare.

As is typical with a Farrelly film, the jukebox needle-drops are adroitly chosen, from the carpool karaoke of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping (the film’s de facto theme song) through EMF’s riotous Unbelievable to an unexpected appearance of Rupert Holmes’s Escape (The Piña Colada Song). Meanwhile, solidly unsoppy chemistry between Harrelson (who got his big-screen breakthrough role in the basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump ) and Olson kicks things into the tonal ballpark of the Kevin Costner-Rene Russo charmer Tin Cup , providing a wise-crackingly dry romantic counterpoint to the uplifting on-court action.

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clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

‘Champions’: This comedy’s supporting cast outshines its stars

Woody harrelson headlines a lowbrow, laugh-free sports comedy about a man sentenced to community service coaching of intellectually disabled athletes.

In “Champions,” a group of actors with intellectual disabilities do their best playing a team of basketball players with intellectual disabilities who are also doing their best. Unfortunately, most of the other people involved in the making of this forgettable movie perform at something less than the top of their game.

The central figure is Marcus (Woody Harrelson), a basketball coach stuck in the minor leagues — specifically, Des Moines — because he’s self-centered and hot-tempered. Marcus is fired after he assaults his boss (Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson) during a midgame tussle over which play to call next. So he gets drunk and accidentally slams his car into a police cruiser. His sentence is a community-service gig coaching a team called the Friends at a facility run by Julio (Cheech Marin).

Concerned just with himself, Marcus befriends aspiring coach Sonny (Matt Cook) purely in hopes of advancing his own career, and spends time with local Shakespearean actress Alex (Kaitlin Olson) only because she’ll have sex with him. (In a stab at gender parity, Alex is portrayed as just as relationship-averse as Marcus.)

But Alex is also the sister of Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), a man with Down syndrome who’s a Friends player, so Marcus’s feelings are likely to get more complicated. It appears possible — okay, inevitable — that Marcus will end up becoming a nicer guy.

“Champions” is billed as a comedy, and while it is amiable, it doesn’t even take a shot at being hilarious. Adapted from a 2018 Spanish film, the movie is the first to be directed solo by Bobby Farrelly, who made such hits as “ Dumb and Dumber ” and “ There’s Something About Mary ” with his brother Peter. As viewers of those farces might expect, “Champions” attempts to elicit laughs with vomit, flatulence and body odor. These lowbrow gags seem perfunctory, though, and tangential to the overall story.

Without seeing the Spanish film, it’s impossible to know whether Mark Rizzo’s screenplay is better or worse than the original. But the script is barely functional, and several key developments are remarkably feeble. When the Friends find they lack the money for a trip to a Special Olympics championship — in Winnipeg, where the movie was actually shot — Marcus and Alex’s solution is both ethically objectionable and narratively inept. Farrelly more or less acknowledges this by rushing through the sequence.

Mostly staged like a conventional sports movie, “Champions” is almost entirely lacking in style and generally short on energy. Farrelly tries to compensate for the torpor by inserting snippets of dozens of pop tunes, notably Chumbawamba’s left-field 1997 hit, “Tubthumping,” which the movie employs as something of a Friends theme song.

Harrelson is in nearly every scene and doesn’t deviate at all from his usual routine. Marin and Hudson are likable yet barely register in their minor roles. Blessed with the most complex part, Olson gets to display more verve and emotional range than the other veterans. Yet the liveliest moments belong to the actors who play the Friends, including Joshua Felder as an unusually skilled shooter who won’t accept Marcus as the new coach, and Madison Tevlin as a woman who’s rather too short to succeed at basketball but who excels at motivating her teammates. Their featured scenes may be brief, but they’re the most winning thing about “Champions.”

PG-13. At area theaters. Contains strong language and crude sexual references. 123 minutes.

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Feel-good but predictable comedy has cursing, racy moments.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Positive messages about the value of supportive fr

Characters change over the course of the movie: Ma

Two main characters of color; most of the cast and

Violence is infrequent, but in one dramatic scene,

Marcus and Alex meet on Tinder and have a one-nigh

Cursing includes spare use of "f---ing," plus "s--

Marcus drinks and drives at the beginning of this

Parents need to know that Champions is director Bobby Farrelly's comedy about a basketball coach named Marcus (Woody Harrelson) who is court-ordered to coach a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) after he's arrested for a DUI. The team members…

Positive Messages

Positive messages about the value of supportive friendships and family relationships, the importance of being kind and emotionally open to others, the courage it can take both to compete athletically and to live your life authentically. Teamwork and perseverance are also themes.

Positive Role Models

Characters change over the course of the movie: Marcus becomes more emotionally connected to others and learns about the give and take of relationships, Alex learns how to give others more freedom to be themselves, Johnny and Benny each learn to confront the people in their lives whose low expectations limit them.

Diverse Representations

Two main characters of color; most of the cast and significant characters are White. Ten actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) are authentically cast as Marcus' team. While their role in the story is to support the journey of a character who isn't disabled, they're depicted as unique individuals. Some jokes are based in their personal quirks, but laughs aren't at the actors' expense.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Violence is infrequent, but in one dramatic scene, Marcus pushes his boss to the ground. In another, he drinks and collides with the back of a police car while driving. When a stranger insults his team and calls them a slur, Marcus punches the person in the stomach; the film seems to view this as a victory.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Marcus and Alex meet on Tinder and have a one-night stand, followed by an affair both insist is "just sex." They kiss, sometimes passionately, and fall into bed together, then wake up wrapped in sheets. In one scene, Alex retrieves her underwear from under Marcus' pillow. Team member Craig seems preoccupied with sex; many jokes are about him telling his teammates about his girlfriend, who's into "nasty stuff," and about his sex life (he mentions a "three way"), though he doesn't go into frank detail.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Cursing includes spare use of "f---ing," plus "s--t," "a--hole," "son of a bitch," "damn," and "hell." In one scene, a character shows double middle fingers to someone she's angry at. Two instance of characters being called "retards"; in both cases, the people who use the slur are are swiftly reprimanded.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Marcus drinks and drives at the beginning of this movie and is arrested for a DUI. He doesn't drive for the rest of the movie, and a character who suffered a traumatic brain injury due to being hit by a drunken driver explains briefly how dramatically his life was affected by drinking and driving.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Champions is director Bobby Farrelly 's comedy about a basketball coach named Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) who is court-ordered to coach a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) after he's arrested for a DUI. The team members are all authentically cast, and while their role as a group is primarily to support the story of a character who isn't disabled, they're all presented as individuals and treated with respect. There are some jokes based in their personal quirks, but those laughs aren't at the actors' expense. Violence includes a few brief physical scuffles, including a scene in which Marcus punches someone for calling his team "retards." Characters kiss passionately, fall into bed, and then wake up wrapped in sheets. One of the team members also often makes revelations about his sex life; he mentions having a "three way" and says that his girlfriend is into "nasty stuff." Language includes "f---ing," "s--t," "a--h--e," "damn," "hell," and "son of a bitch," plus two instances of characters using a slur for those with developmental disabilities. Themes include teamwork and perseverance, and there are positive messages about the value of supportive friendships and family relationships. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Wonderful family movie for older kids

Blown opportunity, what's the story.

Based on the Spanish-language movie of the same name, CHAMPIONS begins as Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) is fired from his professional basketball coaching job and arrested for a DUI. He avoids jail time with community service and is ordered to spend 90 days coaching The Friends, a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Marcus gets to know and love them all over a season of coaching -- particularly Johnny (Kevin Iannucci). Meanwhile, Johnny's sister, Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ), emerges as Marcus' reluctant love interest as the two pair up with a common goal: getting The Friends to the annual Special Olympics champion basketball game.

Is It Any Good?

This sports comedy could have gone terribly wrong, yet it manages to avoid condescending to its disabled actors. Champions isn't cruel, nor does it punch down: Each member of The Friends team is given time to show their personality and individuality. Still, that doesn't mean that their role isn't to support the journey of a nondisabled character (because it is) or that the movie isn't wholly predictable (because it follows the exact beats of both a sports drama and a hero's journey). We know from the first moment we see him that Marcus is a gruff-yet-lovable guy who's destined to be emotionally softened up by his experiences during the movie and that the whole thing will end in laughter and hugs.

Yet despite Champions ' lack of surprises, it does have its charms, chief among them The Friends teammates, who all play to their strengths. Johnny gets the most screen time and the most distinctive arc as he gathers the courage to break free from his overprotective family. But other teammates have their own minor arcs, including Benny (James Day Keith), who confronts an abusive boss, and Darius (Joshua Felder), who begins to resolve his lingering anger at the drunk driver who unwittingly changed the course of his life. These powerful moments are summed up when Marcus explains to his team that it doesn't matter whether they win or lose on the basketball court because they've already won by confronting and rising above the ignorant judgment of people who write them off. OK, so that speech was predictable, too. But Marcus still has a point, and Champions will put a smile on many viewers' faces -- especially those who are OK with a movie that has no surprises but plenty of heart.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether Champions follows the formula of many other sports movies, in which new coaches administer tough love and help losing teams overcome weaknesses. Based on that formula, did you know who would win the Big Game at the end? Would you have gone with a different ending?

Marcus becomes kinder over the course of the movie. Does the movie want you to change your mind about him? Do you think people can change their ways?

Talk about sports movies. What's appealing about them? Do you ever doubt their outcome? What kinds of feelings do they stir up? How does this one compare to other sports films you've seen?

Why is it notable -- and significant -- that the Friends team members were cast authentically, with actors who have disabilities? Why is representation important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 10, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : March 28, 2023
• Cast : Woody Harrelson , Kaitlin Olson , Ernie Hudson
• Director : Bobby Farrelly
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Focus Features
• Genre : Comedy
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 123 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : strong language and crude/sexual references
• Last updated : December 25, 2023

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Screen Rant

Champions review: woody harrelson leads a predictable but feel-good sports movie.

Champions is fairly predictable, and though there’s little tension, the cast is charming together, and the story has a lot of heart and warmth.

Based on the 2018 Spanish film of the same name, the American version of Champions is less powerful because it doesn’t take its cues from the real-life team that inspired the original film. Still, Champions manages to have just enough feel-good moments and good character dynamics to be enjoyable. Directed by Bobby Farrelly from a screenplay by Mark Rizzo, the film gets off to a slow start but picks up steam at the halfway point, landing at a sweet and heartwarming end. Champions is fairly predictable, and though there’s little tension, the cast is charming together, and the story has a lot of heart and warmth.

Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) is a G-league assistant basketball coach with dreams to work with the NBA, but whose bad temper and past actions have tarnished his reputation. After a drunk-driving accident lands him in legal trouble, Marcus is given court-ordered community service coaching a basketball team with intellectual disabilities. Marcus doesn’t take it seriously at first, but he finds himself warming to the idea as he gets to know the individuals on the basketball team, lovingly called “The Friends,” as he trains them to compete in the Special Olympics.

Related: Champions Trailer Showcases Woody Harrelson's Basketball Comeback

Champions has a simple premise, and it works because it knows precisely what kind of film it is trying to be. It’s a feel-good sports movie about coming together. The NBA might be Marcus’ dream, but Champions is a reminder of the good one can do in one’s own community. It’s important work and the bonds that are created in this particular space are unique and heartwarming. Marcus working with The Friends provides the kind of fulfillment he would have never had in the NBA, despite being high-profile. Sometimes smaller is better, and Champions understands that, and Rizzo’s script is imbued with plenty of heart in response.

The film is elevated by the ensemble cast. Harrelson’s sour, disgruntled disposition as Marcus is juxtaposed nicely with The Friends’ more upbeat and optimistic outlook on life. Of The Friends, Kevin Iannucci as Johnny and Madison Tevlin as Consentino, who is a force to be reckoned with, are standouts. Champions shines brighter because of their presence alongside the rest of the team. Marcus might learn a thing or two from The Friends, but their individual stories aren’t entirely neglected in favor of centering Marcus, who wouldn’t be anything without them really.

Champions does take a while to get going, and at a little over two hours long, it could have been edited down a bit to tighten the script. Setting up Marcus’ story at the start could have been swapped to give more screen time to The Friends and their backstories. This would have added more depth to the rest of the characters, helping to flesh them and the various dynamics they have with each other out some more. That said, the slow start doesn’t entirely derail Champions . Once it gets moving, it maintains its momentum and allows its exuberant energy to carry it through to the end. The humor doesn’t always land, but there is enough charisma despite the occasionally flat comedic timing.

The cast’s chemistry uplifts this film and makes certain moments all the more enjoyable. Everyone is clearly having a great time, and it shows in every scene. While the film probably won’t be remembered after audiences leave the theater, Champions is a lighthearted, feel-good sports movie that does exactly what it sets out to accomplish. It doesn’t do anything out of the norm, but it is a solid effort from Farrelly and Rizzo that will certainly boost one’s mood after watching.

More: Return To Seoul Review: Davy Chou Crafts Staggeringly Beautiful Character Study

Champions releases in nationwide theaters on March 10. The film is 123 minutes long and rated PG-13 for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

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‘champions’ (‘campeones’): film review.

Javier Fesser’s 'Champions,' a feel-good comedy drama about a basketball team made up of people with disabilities, is currently riding high at the Spanish box office.

By Jonathan Holland

Jonathan Holland

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“There’ll always be inequality,” says one of the people with disabilities who are the real stars of the hilarious and heartwarming Champions , referring to the arrogant basketball coach given the task of turning them into a team. “But we’re teaching him to handle it.”

That kind of pleasingly punchy reverse logic is typical of Javier Fesser’s fifth feature, which aims both to entertain and to tackle prejudice head on. The emotionally uplifting result, which has “labor of love” written all over it, has been Spain’s biggest box office hit to date of 2018: International presales have been healthy, with remake potential for any production team prepared to take up the challenge of replicating Champions ’ freshness and fizz.

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Fesser’s reputation as a distinctive “outsider” director is built on zany comedies, but his finest work to date is the intense Camino , about the dangers of religion. The zany-but-thoughtful Champions brings the two sides of Fesser together, celebrating otherness at the same time as criticizing traditional attitudes to it. Marco (Javier Gutierrez) is an assistant basketball coach for a Spanish major league side who has attitude problems that have led to a separation from both his wife Sonia ( Athenea Mata) and from his coaching job as well. (At the start of the film, Marco is frankly Neanderthal in his attitudes, in a way that even remotely enlightened auds might have trouble identifying with.)

After driving drunk into the back of a police car, Javier is ordered to do community service, in the form of coaching Los Amigos, a team of guys with disabilities who generally operate under the eye of kindly old-timer Julio (Juan Margallo ). They are, as Marco later complains, “a group of 20 year-olds who behave as though they’re six.”

All of this is mixed in with the on/off relationship of Marco and Sonia, through which it’s revealed that Marco is more of a team player when it comes to basketball than when it comes to his own marriage.

Champions follows the standard dramatic trajectories, as Marco learns to be a good person and figures out how the word “normal” is relative. It is indeed standard, family-friendly fare, but carried off superbly, with all the energy, brio and visual cleverness for which Fesser is known. The story of how Marco takes over a team of mentally and physically uncoordinated no-hopers, many of whom seem ill-adapted to team play at all, features more comic scenes than tender ones, but its best moments are both at the same time. Early sequences are set up credibly enough, but later on, plausibility is abandoned — not that it matters, since from about half-way in audiences are being carried along on a feel-good wave.

Champions lays on its message in a heavy-handed, populist way, but neither its storyline nor its approach to the characters is ever tear-jerking or simplistic.  Fesser and co-scripter David Marques have bent over backwards to present Los Amigos as regular guys — and one girl, who’s perhaps the most memorable character of all: The pint-sized Collantes (Gloria Ramos), who has Down Syndrome and is prone to gaining an advantage by kicking her lanky opponents in the genitals.

This is very much Gutierrez’s movie, and he delivers, retaining sympathy even when Marco is behaving repugnantly. (Of late, an appearance by Gutierrez has been a guarantor of a film’s quality, as evidenced by titles such as The Motive and Marshland .) The secondaries are all fine, but special mention must go to the ten members of the wonderfully anarchic Amigos, all non-pros and each handled individually, with due care and respect, by a script that is far more patronizing to Marco than it is to them. One of the film’s most moving exchanges is a seaside conversation between Marco and traumatized Roman (Roberto Chinchilla), while the triumph of Juanma (Jose de Luna) over his aquaphobia is a different kind of highlight, an over-the-top, surreal set-piece which should provoke tears and laughter in equal measure.

The final scene of Los Amigos’ big, climactic game is a joy to be manipulated by, all heavy orchestra and slow motion, and including a delicious final twist guaranteed to enlarge aud perceptions about what being a champion actually means, which is of course the whole point. Much of the film’s sentimentality seems to have been front-loaded into Rafael Arnau’s score, which is lovely but extended to the max, its eternally rising tones calculated to oblige the viewer to reach for the Kleenex.

For the record, Champions may also be an act of cultural penance for the Spaniards, who are turning out in droves to watch it. At the 2000 Paralympics Games, the Spanish national basketball team won the gold medal with a team including only two players with disabilities — a remarkably cynical and fraudulent act that  Champions takes pains to condemn outright.

Production companies: Peliculas Pendleton, Movistar +, Morena Films Cast: Javier Gutierrez, Jose de Luna, Gloria Ramos, Roberto Chinchilla, Athenea Mata, Luisa Gavasa , Mariano Llorente , Daniel Freire , Juan Margallo Director: Javier Fesser Screenwriters: David Marques, Javier Fesser Producers: Luis Manso , Alvaro Longoria Director of photography: Chechu Graf Art Director: Javier Fernandez Costume designer: Ana Martínez Editor: Javier Fesser Composer: Rafael Arnau Sales: Latido Films

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Review: 'Champions' has the makings of a winner, but can't execute

Woody harrelson coaches a squad of intellectually disabled basketball players in this comedy from one half of the "there's something about mary" team..

A simple, feel good sports story with a gooey center, "Champions" should be easy lay up on an open court. Instead it's like successfully executing a 2-3 zone defense against a team of deadeye longball shooters.

Lost? Well, "Champions" is a bit lost, too. It's shaggy around the edges and never quite takes full advantage of the formula it's co-opting. It's the kind of movie you want to root for more than you end up actually rooting for it.

Woody Harrelson plays Marcus Markovich, a down-on-his-luck basketball coach in the backwater of professional basketball's developmental system, coaching a J-League squad in Des Moines, Iowa. (There is no J-League, there is a G-League, but "Champions" has a markedly odd relationship with the NBA and reality.)

After getting popped on a DUI charge, Marcus is sentenced to community service, where he is asked to coach a team of intellectually disabled ball players on their way to the Special Olympics. The warm hugs are practically baked into the script.

But those hugs have to be earned. Marcus is at first dubious of his assignment, off-handedly using the R-word to describe his players. This comes with the territory. But beat by predictable beat, the group grows on him, and ostensibly on the audience as well.

That group includes "Showtime" (Bradley Edens), who insists on shooting the ball backwards and has never even come close to making a basket; Marlon (Casey Metcalfe), a trivia savant and multi-linguist who wears a padded helmet on his hand and thick glasses over his eyes; and firecracker Consentino (scene stealer Madison Tevlin), who does and says whatever's on her mind and isn't afraid to put Coach in his place.

Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), who has Down syndrome (he introduces himself as "your homie with an extra chromie") and works at a local animal shelter, gets the most screen time, but that's mainly because he has a sister ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's" Kaitlin Olson) whom Marcus hooks up with in the film's opening scene. Olson, for her part, owns her sharp comic timing and runs laps around Harrelson, who is lackadaisical even by his own standards.

Plot-wise, "Champions" is a straight shot down the cliché highway with no unexpected detours along the way. (It's adapted from the 2018 Spanish film "Campeones.") You know right where this thing is headed, drawing as it does from misfit sports movies like "The Bad News Bears" and "A League of Their Own," and outsider mentor movies like "School of Rock." But it never quite lands or delivers the big feels you might expect.

Director Bobby Farrelly, he of the Farrelly Brothers (big brother Peter won the Oscar for "Green Book") has a history of casting differently abled actors in his films and creating inclusive environments, and "Champions" is his biggest achievement yet in that arena.

Yet his gross-out instincts get the best of him — a vomit gag is particularly unnecessary and lands all wrong — as he fumbles with finding the right tone. Or even the right focus: Harrelson's redemption arc, however unearned, is the center of the story, even though the team and its dynamics make for more interesting subject matter.

The film does make good use of its snowy, desolate locale — that's Winnipeg playing the role of Des Moines, and later itself — which makes it feel like even more of an underdog story, even if this underdog underwhelms. "Champions" has its heart in the right place but never quite finds its sweet spot on the court.

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'Champions'

Rated PG-13: for strong language and crude/sexual references

Running time: 123 minutes

In theaters

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Champions (2023)

March 8, 2023 by Robert Kojder

Champions , 2023.

Directed by Bobby Farrelly. Starring Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Cheech Marin, Matt Cook, Ernie Hudson, Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, James Day, Keith Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Ryan DeLong, Bradley Edens, Alicia Johnston, Tom Sinclair, Barbara Pollard, Alexandra Castillo, Mike Smith, Scott Van Pelt, Jalen Rose, Seán Cullen, Jacob Blair, and Mike Smith.

A former minor-league basketball coach is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realizes that despite his doubts, together, this team can go further than they ever imagined.

Champions is detestable for its first hour and merely tolerable for its second hour. The film marks the solo directorial debut of Bobby Farrelly (following in the footsteps of his Oscar-nominated brother Peter helming features such as Best Picture winner Green Book ), who is about as heavy-handed and sappy as his sibling, although prioritizing broad comedy rather than political statements or solving racism.

No, Bobby Farrelly is up to something else; pointing out, through lowbrow comedy, the dehumanizing mistreatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities, not just from heartless people clinging onto the R-word but also those underestimating or not giving them enough credit to function and live a happy life despite their handicaps.

Based on the Spanish-language film by Javier Fesse and David Marqués (with Mark Rizzo performing screenplay duties on this adaptation), Champions follows J-league basketball assistant coach Marcus (Woody Harrelson doing his usual sardonic schtick), who, after getting into an argument with hookup partner Alex (Kaitlin Olson), has an even worse day on the court getting into a physical altercation with head coach Phil Perretti (Ernie Hudson) during a disagreement on how to set up the potentially game-winning final play.

The gist is that Marcus is so focused on winning, he doesn’t see his players as human beings and doesn’t realize that their star performer is grieving his grandmother and thus does not have enough of a clear head to be trusted with shooting the buzzer beater. Subsequently, Marcus is given a choice of 18 months of incarceration or community service coaching an adult basketball team of individuals with intellectual disabilities (Down syndrome is the condition most mentioned). 

What’s frustrating about Champions is that the first has to put Marcus through the standard clichés regarding intellectually challenged individuals, as he grossly questions what to call them besides the R-word. Naturally, the judge says calling them by their names is a good start. Then the story reintroduces the Alex character as the sister of one of the players because there also needs to be a romantic subplot.

Aside from an introductory sequence showing off their distinct quirks and a montage exploring the daily lives of these players, demonstrating that they are capable of holding jobs, have hobbies, and can get from point A to point B by themselves (of course, all of these are on a case-by-case basis depending on how much the disability affects the person), it feels as if Champions is barely concerned with them and is only aspiring to be a generic redemptive tale of a sports coach that – much in the same way Green Book was a well-intentioned but shallow story about white people embracing and accepting Black people – is about the able-bodied having several revelations and their perceptions of intellectually disabled individuals shattered. It’s a noble idea, but it is executed with far too many side plots, unfunny humor, and too much focus on Marcus.

The greater issue is that during the first hour (this movie should be nowhere near 2+ hours), the jokes coming from the intellectually disabled players have an uncomfortable delivery that we are supposed to be laughing at their antics from a condescending, cutesy perspective (oh look, they’re inadvertently trashing the court). Marcus also has to go through the basics of learning that players, regardless of intellectual capabilities, or human beings.

Thankfully, a switch does flip in the second half, with more interest coming into the disabled characters and more humor coming from them pushing back against able-bodied people that think they know what’s best. The film is also not afraid to make them infallible, as the brother needs to learn that his sister can sleep with whoever she wants, even if it is his coach. Meanwhile, the sister needs to learn that if he wants to live in a group home, she needs to let go of the helicopter worrying and let him live his life. 

Of course, all of this leads to some key games through the Special Olympics and an enticing offer for Marcus that could only be coming his way to exploit what he has done with the team. He also learns that winning isn’t everything. Buried underneath all the clichés and standard able-bodied drama of Champions is a well-meaning tale about intellectually disabled individuals standing up for themselves (it should also be mentioned that the performances across the board from them are fantastic and charming) and asserting who they are and what they can do, that never quite gets high enough for a slam-dunk. The script and direction needed a better game plan.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Champions Review

Once best known as purveyors of puerility, the Farrelly brothers are these days exploring a modicum of maturity. Peter Farrelly scaled Oscar glory back in 2018 with  Green Book ; now younger brother Bobby returns with this comedy-drama about disability and difference that’s more mature than, say,  Dumb & Dumber . Based on the Spanish film of the same name, it tells the story of Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ), a grumpy, hard-drinking basketball coach whose career is on the rocks after he finds himself fired from his minor league team and arrested for a DUI.

This is ultimately a warm-hearted celebration of the uplifting power of sports.

His punishment comes in the form of community service, managing a Special Olympics basketball team, as they look to ascend the regional leagues and actually cohere as a team. Nothing about what follows will be of any surprise to anyone who has ever seen a movie about sports or disability: yes, Marcus’s coldly ambitious heart soon thaws to the charms of his young players, and yes, this plucky team against all odds make their way to the final, where they ultimately learn that the real victory was the friends they made along the way, etc.

You know the drill by now. What keeps it eminently watchable are some charming performances and Mark Rizzo’s frequently witty, warm script. Harrelson’s Texan drawl plays nicely low-key and naturalistically in areas that can often feel unnaturally formulaic; he’s always exceptional value for money. The young cast that make up his team are great company too, all cast from authentic backgrounds, and the film takes unusual care in showing that it is entirely possible to have a rich, fulfilled life while living with disability. Farrelly — who has previously employed disabled actors in films like  Shallow Hal  and  There’s Something About Mary , earning both criticism and praise for his depictions — largely celebrates his young cast here, rather than making them the butt of jokes.

Farrelly’s direction is often fairly blunt and first-base — there are some egregious needle-drops on the soundtrack, including Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ — and it teeters on the edges of bad taste and condescension, without ever totally crossing the line. This is ultimately a warm-hearted celebration of the uplifting power of sports. Not quite a slam dunk, but a decent play.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Drama , Sports

Content Caution

In Theaters

• March 10, 2023
• Woody Harrelson as Marcus; Kaitlin Olson as Alex; Matt Cook as Sonny; Ernie Hudson as Coach Phil Perretti; Cheech Marin as Julio; Madison Tevlin as Cosentino; Joshua Felder as Darius; Kevin Iannucci as Johnny; Ashton Gunning as Cody; Matthew Von Der Ahe as Craig; Tom Sinclair as Blair; James Day Keith as Benny; Alex Hintz as Arthur; Casey Metcalfe as Marlon; Bardley Edens as Showtime; Barbara Pollard as Dot; Alexandra Castillo as Judge Mary Menendez; Mike Smith as Attorney McGurk

Home Release Date

• March 28, 2023
• Bobby Farrelly

Distributor

• Focus Features

Movie Review

That’s all it took to ruin Marcus’ chance of becoming become an NBA coach.

Flashback: Marcus was an assistant coach for the minor-league Iowa Stallions when, in a moment of anger, he shoved the head coach to the ground. Why did he shove him? Well, because he was going to call the wrong play.

Thatincident got him removed from the basketball court. The ensuing drunk-driving charge landed him in a legal court. The verdict? Most definitely guilty. The punishment? Ninety days of community service coaching a team of adults with intellectual disabilities.

Marcus wasn’t prepared for how different his coaching tactics would need to be in order to effectively coach his new team, the Friends. In fact, Marcus calls the job “impossible.”

“You don’t have to turn them into the Lakers,” a program manager says. “They just need to feel like a team .”

With his eyes still set on reaching the top, Marcus finds it hard not to be thinking about what it might be like to coach the Lakers.

But as Marcus’ mandated community-service clock starts to tick down, and as he begins to build relationships with the players on the team, he starts to wonder if “the top” is really where he wants to be.

Positive Elements

Champions confronts the stereotype that adults with intellectual disabilities are incapable of living without assistance. When Marcus expresses surprise that one of the players is able to ride his motor scooter home, another man tells him, “These guys are a lot more capable than you think.” He tells Marcus that some of the players work jobs: one in a fancy restaurant, another as a welder. Some of them live alone, while others live together. And besides, he says, that player on the motor scooter has never crashed—unlike Marcus.

As for Marcus’ growth, he begins to realize that he’s been using his players as means to an end rather than cultivating relationships with them. For instance, on his previous team, Marcus was frustrated by one player’s absence; he later learns that the player wasn’t in the game because he was visiting his grandma in the hospital—something Marcus would have known had he bothered to ask. It takes a few different people to point this out, but eventually, Marcus recognizes his self-focused orientation and works to fix it.

One player on the Friends team, Darius, initially refuses to play on Marcus’ team. We eventually learn that it’s because Darius suffered a traumatic brain injury from being hit by a drunk driver. Because of that, Darius “hates drunk drivers,” including Marcus, who was charged with a DUI. When Marcus learns of this, he goes to Darius’ home to apologize and to tell Darius how he regrets his actions.

Spiritual Elements

Darius tells Marcus that his mother is a Christian. “She wants me to forgive the lady who hit me,” Darius says. And though he doesn’t think he can forgive her , he wonders if he might be able to move toward that goal by forgiving Marcus.

Marcus believes visualizing certain outcomes can bring them into existence. Accordingly, he has the team visualize winning the championship game in an attempt to influence the future.

Sexual Content

Sexual jokes pervade the film, and the story largely promotes a culture of sexual promiscuity.

Marcus and Alex, the sister of one of the players, meet on the dating app Tinder and have a one-night stand. We see Alex in lingerie, and she puts on her underwear beneath a skirt. The two later agree to have sex but not commit to a relationship, and we see a few scenes of the two passionately kissing before cutting away (and in one, we briefly see Alex in her bra). We see them in bed, covered by clever sheet placement and obviously unclothed.

They’re sleeping together because, as Alex puts it, “Sometimes, I hop on Tinder because a woman’s got needs,” and Marcus “gets the job done.” She later justifies their relationship, such as it is, by saying that it’s “just sex, OK?” Of course, the two inevitably do admit feelings for one another. But one of the team’s players  comments on Marcus and Alex’s relationship, stating that “[Alex] can have sex with whoever she wants.”

Later, Alex’s mother pries into the couple’s relationship, and she confronts Alex about having sex with Marcus—not condemning that choice but just wanting to confirm that’s what’s happening between the two. When Marcus visits later, Alex’s mother asks if he’s come over for an “afternoon quickie.” Alex wears outfits that reveal cleavage.

Another player on the team, Craig, seemingly exists solely to make sexual remarks about his girlfriend. He claims to have two girlfriends, and one is said to “get around.” Marcus tells the players that he’s going to teach them a “ball-handling exercise,” and Craig makes a crude joke about it, also referencing having sex. Later, as part of a motivational speech, Craig tells his teammates that “I was scared when I had my first threesome, but it was good!”

Marcus uses crude anatomical slang to describe how much he likes a certain basketball play. Multiple references to that coarse euphemism turn up later in the film.

The team’s lone female player, a young woman with Down syndrome named Cosentino, calls a players-only meeting in the locker room, forcing Marcus out by threatening to “MeToo” him if he enters.

Male characters are seen shirtless. The men on the team shower, and we see them in towels. Marcus hugs a player who’s taking a shower (though the player in question is afraid of showering and still has his pants on). One player enjoys doing popular NBA celebration dances after he shoots. In particular, he most enjoys one called the “Big Balls” celebration. When a player hears about a hotel where they’ll be staying, he exclaims that they’ll be “living like pimps!”

We also hear various verbal references and crass exhortations involving male genitalia. And speaking of that …

Violent Content

… Marcus references testicular torsion. A player’s finger gets snapped to the side, and he snaps it back in place to the sound of grinding bones. Marcus gets hit in the face with a basketball. Marcus pushes someone to the ground, and he later punches a man in the stomach. Marcus drives while under the influence, and he crashes into a police car. A bus driver is hit in the head with an object.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is used once. The s-word is heard six times. “A–” is used over 15 times, and “h—” is used 10 times. We also hear many instances of “b–ch,” “d-ck” and “d–n.” “P-ss,” “b–tard” and “prick” are all used once. God’s name is abused 12 times. We see a crude hand gesture. People with intellectual disabilities are called “retards” twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We see Marcus taking a shot of alcohol before hopping into his car. Later, Marcus’ lawyer asks if he is intoxicated while they’re at court together. Marcus says no, which prompts his lawyer to say, “Good, because I’ve had several.” As mentioned above, Marcus is ordered by a court to complete community service as a result of his DUI.

Elsewhere, another character sings about piña coladas.

Other Negative Elements

Someone vomits on another person. A player passes gas on a man while stretching. Marcus says refs are “meant to be yelled at.” We learn that a player’s father left after his boy was born.

Marcus impersonates a police officer to extort a restaurant for money. A restaurant owner makes disparaging comments about other ethnicities and someone with Down syndrome.

This Woody Harrelson film, based on the Spanish dramedy   Campeones , challenges audiences to think about how many people in society disregard and preemptively judge those with mental disabilities. Champions also gives us the story of a man who gradually learns how to value others instead of just using them for his own agenda.

Those nicer parts of the film, however, are simply buried beneath a plethora of other issues, the biggest of which is the movie’s promotion of sexual promiscuity. Jokes about casual sex fly constantly through the film.

While the movie never condemns this anything-goes sexual ethic, it does show how two adults who agree to a no-strings-attached sexual relationship eventually hurt each other when they start to develop feelings for each other (which they both promised wouldn’t happen).

That said, most of the time sex is just treated as a means to a cheap laugh. Toss in frequent profanity (including an f-word), and what we’re left with is a jarring disconnect between this movie’s clearly aspirational themes and content that’s anything but.

Let’s put it this way: If Champions was a player on your basketball team, the movie might get a couple of points on the board. But it’s definitely going to foul out before you even make it to halftime.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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Champions Reviews

Begins in tragedy and ends in triumph.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2004

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Champions Parent Guide

Heartwarming and inclusive, this otherwise fine film is marred by excessive crude language and sexual discussion..

Theaters: A former basketball coach is sentenced to community service for a drunk driving offence and is assigned to coach a team for people with intellectual disabilities.

Release date March 10, 2023

Run Time: 123 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

In one night, Marcus Marakovich (Woody Harrelson) makes three catastrophically bad discussions. First, he has a forceful disagreement with the head coach of the junior league basketball team for which he is the assistant coach – in the middle of the game. Second, he loses his temper and shoves the coach to the floor – as the cameras roll. Third, he drowns his sorrows in the local bar – and crashes into the back of a parked police car while driving under the influence. Almost immediately, Marcus is unemployed and facing criminal charges.

When Marcus finally gets his day in court, the judge gives him a choice: eighteen months in jail or ninety days coaching a basketball team for intellectually challenged young people. Marcus might be arrogant and self-absorbed, but he isn’t stupid. He signs up for the volunteer coaching gig.

Trying to review Champions has me smashing my head into the keyboard in frustration. This movie has a great story and appealing characters, but it contains too much negative content for me to recommend it to the family audiences that would otherwise love it. The script contains multiple slang terms for male genitals and male sexual arousal and there are frequent moments of crude sexual innuendo, including brief mention of a “threesome”. Marcus is also involved in a sexual relationship that begins as a bad Tinder date and later reignites as a “no-strings” deal. Whenever he tries to raise the issue of a deeper emotional connection, Alex (Kaitlin Olson) shuts him down, determined to limit their activities to sex. I’m guessing that most parents will not consider a transactional sexual relationship to be something they want to watch with their teens, even without explicit activity or nudity. Parents will also not approve of a scene where two adults pretend to be police officers and extort money out of a bigoted adult: he might be a jerk but this behavior is criminal and shouldn’t be justified on screen.

The negative content is particularly annoying because the rest of the film is heartwarming without becoming saccharine. Yes, it follows the predictable beats of an underdog sports flick, but it does so with heart and has the courage to depart from the formula to keep things real. Marcus has a convincing redemption story: as he begins to walk in other people’s shoes and understand their challenges, he’s able to look beyond his narrow view of success and see a more diverse, vibrant world. His wannabe athletes live rich, complicated lives that don’t fall into the sentimental “Tiny Tim” stereotype that so often diminishes disabled characters on screen. In fact, this film does much more than just provide visible diversity or representation. It brings to life people with intellectual challenges and neurodivergence and shows their differences not as disabilities but as contributions; as unique perspectives that can change the way we see ourselves and each other and how we measure success. It’s a great message: if only the film didn’t foul out so often on its way to the net.

About author

Kirsten hawkes, watch the trailer for champions.

Champions Rating & Content Info

Why is Champions rated PG-13? Champions is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

Violence: A man shoves another to the ground in a disagreement. A man punches someone for making a bigoted comment. There is mention of a brain injury caused by a drunk driver. A man crashes into a police car while driving under the influence. Sexual Content: There are frequent, undetailed conversations about sex. A person mentions a threesome. There is frequent reference to male genitalia and male sexual arousal. A man and woman kiss passionately and are shown kissing in bed and embracing under bedsheets: sex is discussed and the activity is strongly implied but there is no explicit content. A man and woman discuss a sexual relationship free of commitment or emotional entanglements. Profanity: There are just under three dozen profanities in the script, including two sexual expletives (and a character making a sexual hand gesture with both hands), eleven anatomical swear words, eight minor swear words, seven terms of deity, and five scatological curses. There is also frequent use of crude terms for male genitals and sexual activity. A developmental slur is used on a few occasions. Alcohol / Drug Use: A man gets drunk and then causes a car accident. People drink alcohol with meals.

Page last updated December 27, 2023

Champions Parents' Guide

What does Marcus learn from the players on the basketball team? How does his work with them change his perspective on his own life and priorities?

In his pep talk, Marcus tells his players that they are already champions because they are brave. What kind of bravery do they demonstrate in their lives? Do you know other people whose courage is unacknowledged but is worth emulating?

Related home video titles:

If you’re interested in stories about disabled athletes, you can watch Soul Surfer . This film tells the true story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm to a shark attack in Hawaii. The young woman was determined to recover and surf again. Also based on a true story is Rudy , the story of Rudy Ruettiger, an intellectually challenged young man who lived his dream of playing football for Notre Dame.

A lacrosse team from the Canadian territory of Nunavut fight the challenges of addiction, family dysfunction, and a suicide epidemic as they aim for success in The Grizzlies .

Basketball movies are easy to find. Gene Hackman stars as the new coach of a losing team in small town Indiana in Hoosiers . Another struggling coach is at the helm of another struggling team in The Way Back. Glory Road is set in the 1960s, a time of fiercely defended racial segregation. When coach Don Haskins signs up some African Americans to play on his college team, he stirs up a storm and changes history.

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‘Challengers’ review: Zendaya serves up an ace in steamy love triangle

Movie review.

Is there anyone in cinema right now who has a gaze as coolly assured as Zendaya’s? In Luca Guadagnino’s tennis love triangle “Challengers,” she owns the movie and the camera, eyeing it as if daring it to reveal her thoughts. As Tashi Duncan, a tennis megastar-turned-coach after an injury, she’s utterly believable as a young woman accustomed to being looked at, an athlete frustrated by not having perfect control over her body, a person trying to figure out what life looks like when you can no longer do what you were born to do.

Zendaya is the main reason to watch “Challengers,” which is made with great style but ultimately is, well, a romantic triangle with an awful lot of artfully sweaty tennis. The two other points of the triangle are men Tashi has known since her years as a teenage tennis phenom: Art (Mike Faist, Riff in Steven Spielberg’s “ West Side Story ”) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), longtime friends and rivals on the court and off. Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay moves us around in time; we learn early on that Tashi and Art are married and that she’s his coach — a complicated dynamic — and that both now have little contact with Patrick, who’s down on his luck. Using a crucial tennis match between Art and Patrick in the present as a framing device, we’re whooshed into various moments in their mutual past to understand the relationships and back again, quicker than an ace serve.

Set to a throbby, intoxicating score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Challengers” homes in on the details of tennis: the perfectly beaded sweat, the grunt-and-thwack sound of a player unleashing a racket on a ball, the way a top athlete seems to know just where the ball will be coming, even before it’s hit. Zendaya’s Tashi is never still on the court, dancing a tensile tango with the ball as partner, revealing the person her character is by the way she reacts in the moment.

But the real drama of “Challengers” is meant to happen off the court, and here Guadagnino, whose specialty is swoony love stories (“ Call Me By Your Name ,” “ I Am Love ”), reminds us that he’s very good at the sweet romance of kissing scenes, and at creating a charged mood between two (or three) people. (There’s a wildly over-the-top windstorm near the end that surely categorizes as A Bit Much, but makes for great drama.) If “Challengers” sometimes feels a little too talky, or if sometimes we’re too aware that neither of these men seem quite worthy of Tashi — well, that’s the way the ball bounces. It’s not a perfect movie, but Zendaya makes it a great pleasure.  

With Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes. 131 minutes. Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity.  Opens April 25 at multiple theaters.

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‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.

In Alex Garland’s tough new movie, a group of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst, as a photographer, travels a United States at war with itself.

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‘Civil War’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The writer and director alex garland narrates a sequence from his film..

“My name is Alex Garland and I’m the writer director of ‘Civil War’. So this particular clip is roughly around the halfway point of the movie and it’s these four journalists and they’re trying to get, in a very circuitous route, from New York to DC, and encountering various obstacles on the way. And this is one of those obstacles. What they find themselves stuck in is a battle between two snipers. And they are close to one of the snipers and the other sniper is somewhere unseen, but presumably in a large house that sits over a field and a hill. It’s a surrealist exchange and it’s surrounded by some very surrealist imagery, which is they’re, in broad daylight in broad sunshine, there’s no indication that we’re anywhere near winter in the filming. In fact, you can kind of tell it’s summer. But they’re surrounded by Christmas decorations. And in some ways, the Christmas decorations speak of a country, which is in disrepair, however silly it sounds. If you haven’t put away your Christmas decorations, clearly something isn’t going right.” “What’s going on?” “Someone in that house, they’re stuck. We’re stuck.” “And there’s a bit of imagery. It felt like it hit the right note. But the interesting thing about that imagery was that it was not production designed. We didn’t create it. We actually literally found it. We were driving along and we saw all of these Christmas decorations, basically exactly as they are in the film. They were about 100 yards away, just piled up by the side of the road. And it turned out, it was a guy who’d put on a winter wonderland festival. People had not dug his winter wonderland festival, and he’d gone bankrupt. And he had decided just to leave everything just strewn around on a farmer’s field, who was then absolutely furious. So in a way, there’s a loose parallel, which is the same implication that exists within the film exists within real life.” “You don’t understand a word I say. Yo. What’s over there in that house?” “Someone shooting.” “It’s to do with the fact that when things get extreme, the reasons why things got extreme no longer become relevant and the knife edge of the problem is all that really remains relevant. So it doesn’t actually matter, as it were, in this context, what side they’re fighting for or what the other person’s fighting for. It’s just reduced to a survival.”

By Manohla Dargis

A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, D.C., the president is holed up in the White House; in a spookily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near-future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers and wild-eyed randos are in the fight while an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California — as I said, this is speculative fiction — is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you’re feeling triggered, you aren’t alone.

It’s mourning again in America, and it’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, consuming fires and terrific actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the movie is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? If that sounds harrowing, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie taps into childish fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. A pop cultural savant, he made a splashy zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 best seller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that proves deadly, an evergreen metaphor for life and the basis for a silly film . That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often far worse, is a theme that Garland has continued pursuing in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“ 28 Days Later ”), and then as a writer-director (“ Ex Machina ”). His résumé is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, though reliably it is his outwardly ordinary characters you need to keep a closer watch on.

By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. It’s unclear as to why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland does scatter some hints; in one ugly scene, a militia type played by a jolting, scarily effective Jesse Plemons asks captives “what kind of American” they are. Yet whatever divisions preceded the conflict are left to your imagination, at least partly because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

‘Civil War’ Is Designed to Disturb You

One thing that remains familiar amid these ruins is the movie’s old-fashioned faith in journalism. Dunst, who’s sensational, plays Lee, a war photographer who works for Reuters alongside her friend, a reporter, Joel (the charismatic Wagner Moura). They’re in New York when you meet them, milling through a crowd anxiously waiting for water rations next to a protected tanker. It’s a fraught scene; the restless crowd is edging into mob panic, and Lee, camera in hand, is on high alert. As Garland’s own camera and Joel skitter about, Lee carves a path through the chaos, as if she knows exactly where she needs to be — and then a bomb goes off. By the time it does, an aspiring photojournalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), is also in the mix.

The streamlined, insistently intimate story takes shape once Lee, Joel, Jessie and a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), pile into a van and head to Washington. Joel and Lee are hoping to interview the president (Nick Offerman), and Sammy and Jessie are riding along largely so that Garland can make the trip more interesting. Sammy serves as a stabilizing force (Henderson fills the van with humanizing warmth), while Jessie plays the eager upstart Lee takes under her resentful wing. It’s a tidily balanced sampling that the actors, with Garland’s banter and via some cozy downtime, turn into flesh-and-blood personalities, people whose vulnerability feeds the escalating tension with each mile.

As the miles and hours pass, Garland adds diversions and hurdles, including a pair of playful colleagues, Tony and Bohai (Nelson Lee and Evan Lai), and some spooky dudes guarding a gas station. Garland shrewdly exploits the tense emptiness of the land, turning strangers into potential threats and pretty country roads into ominously ambiguous byways. Smartly, he also recurrently focuses on Lee’s face, a heartbreakingly hard mask that Dunst lets slip brilliantly. As the journey continues, Garland further sketches in the bigger picture — the dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone — but for the most part, he focuses on his travelers and the engulfing violence, the smoke and the tracer fire that they often don’t notice until they do.

Despite some much-needed lulls (for you, for the narrative rhythm), “Civil War” is unremittingly brutal or at least it feels that way. Many contemporary thrillers are far more overtly gruesome than this one, partly because violence is one way unimaginative directors can put a distinctive spin on otherwise interchangeable material: Cue the artful fountains of arterial spray. Part of what makes the carnage here feel incessant and palpably realistic is that Garland, whose visual approach is generally unfussy, doesn’t embellish the violence, turning it into an ornament of his virtuosity. Instead, the violence is direct, at times shockingly casual and unsettling, so much so that its unpleasantness almost comes as a surprise.

If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “ MAGA civil war ,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.

Movies have played a role in that relitigation for more than a century, at times grotesquely. Two of the most famous films in history — D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist epic “The Birth of a Nation” (which became a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool) and the romantic 1939 melodrama “Gone With the Wind” — are monuments to white supremacy and the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Both were critical and popular hits. In the decades since, filmmakers have returned to the Civil War era to tell other stories in films like “Glory,” “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” that in addressing the American past inevitably engage with its present.

There are no lofty or reassuring speeches in “Civil War,” and the movie doesn’t speak to the better angels of our nature the way so many films try to. Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in “Civil War.” The very premise of Garland’s movie means that — no matter what happens when or if Lee and the rest reach Washington — a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.

Civil War Rated R for war violence and mass death. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review misidentified an organization in the Civil War in the movie. It is the Western Forces, not the Western Front.

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Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya and Company Smash the Sports-Movie Mold in Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Scorcher

Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist compete for a fellow player’s heart in a steamy and stylish love triangle from the director of 'Call Me by Your Name.'

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Anyone who’s ever played tennis knows the game starts with love and escalates fast. In Luca Guadagnino ’s hip, sexy and ridiculously overheated “ Challengers ,” the rivals are former doubles partners Art Donaldson ( Mike Faist ) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), best friends since the age of 12, who went their separate ways after both players fell for the same woman. Patrick got there first, but Art wound up marrying her — and their sense of competition has only intensified since.

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“I’m no homewrecker,” Tashi teases Art and Patrick the night they meet her, 13 years earlier. Constructed like a tennis competition, Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay ricochets back and forth through time, asking us to pivot our brains the way audiences do at the movie’s opening challenger match. (In pro tennis, challenger events are like the minor leagues, where second-tier talents prove themselves.) This one frames the film, as Tashi seems torn between her husband and his old partner.

Watching from the stands, their legs splayed indecently wide, the pair ogle Tashi as the wind whips her short skirt up in the air. None of this is accidental: not the way Jonathan Anderson (as in J.W. Anderson, switching from catwalks to costume design in his first feature credit) showcases Zendaya’s gazelle-like legs, not the way DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom frames the boys’ crotches, and certainly not the moment Patrick squeezes his pal’s leg as Tashi shows them how, at its most beautiful, the game can be an ecstatic experience.

Later that night, at an Adidas-sponsored party for Tashi, the guys take turns trying to get her number. They’re motivated by hormones. She’s more strategic (the sheer control involved in Zendaya’s performance is astonishing, transforming this would-be trophy into the one who sets the rules). “You don’t know what tennis is,” Tashi challenges Patrick, going on to explain, “It’s a relationship.” Lines like this, which spell everything out in blinking neon lights, run throughout Kuritzkes’ script. But Guadagnino’s execution is all about subtext, calibrating things such that body language speaks volumes.

The same goes for what promises to be the year’s hottest scene, back in the boys’ hotel room, as Tashi sits on the bed between the two and coaxes — or coaches — them to make out. “Challengers” is not a gay film per se, but it leaves things ambiguous enough that one could read it like Lukas Dhont’s recent “Close,” about a friendship so tight, the boys’ peers tease them for it.

Over the course of 131 minutes, “Challengers” volleys between what amounts to a romantic rematch and intimate earlier vignettes. At all times, even off-screen, Tashi remains the fulcrum. In the present, Art — whose torso shows signs of multiple surgeries — has been on a cold streak, which betrays a loss of passion for the game. Passion’s no problem for Patrick, who’s more confident in both his swing and his sexuality.

The film calls for intensely physical performances from the two male actors, who both appear wobbly and exhausted by the end. Faist (a Broadway star whom “West Side Story” introduced to moviegoers) has a relatively traditional character arc, patiently waiting his turn and evolving as the timeline progresses. O’Connor (whose smoldering turn in gay indie “God’s Own Country” got him cast on “The Crown”) comes across as animalistic and immature by comparison, as his bad-boy character refuses to grow up or give up.

Another filmmaker might have subtracted himself in order to foreground the story, whereas Guadagnino goes big, leading with style (and a trendy score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). In keeping with the athletic theme, he does all kinds of wild things with the camera, including a composition framed from the umpire’s perspective mid-court that zooms along the net to find Tashi in the crowd. Occasionally, she and other characters smack the fluorescent yellow balls directly at the screen, making us flinch in our seats. By the end, “Challengers” has assumed the ball’s POV — or maybe it’s the racket’s — as Guadagnino immerses audiences in the film’s climactic match.

Far from your typical sports movie, “Challengers” is less concerned with the final score than with the ever-shifting dynamic between the players. The pressure mounts and the perspiration pours, as the pair once known as “Fire and Ice” face off again. Whether audiences identify as Team Patrick or Team Art, Guadagnino pulls a risky yet inspired trick, effectively scoring the winning shot himself.

Reviewed at AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, April 9, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 131 MIN.

• Production: Amazon MGM presentation of a Why Are You Acting?, Frenesy Films, Pascal Pictures production. Producers: Amy Pascal, Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya, Rachel O’Connor. Executive producers: Bernard Bellew, Lorenzo Mieli, Kevin Ulrich.
• Crew: Director: Luca Guadagnino. Camera: Sayonbhu Mukdeeprom. Editor: Marco Costa. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross. Music supervisor: Robin Urdang.
• With: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist.

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