One night Paul and Sal are out getting some delicious looking New York pizza and spot their favorite player, Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm) across the way. They moronically decide to jump in their car and begin following him and his entourage through the streets of New York. After a pit stop they continue into Manhattan where they manage to find a parking spot and follow Bishop into a strip club. This is where the more surprising elements of the film begin to play out.
Paul and Sal admit to following Bishop and make the dumb suggestion that they know they made the pit stop, which was obviously to buy drugs. This infuriates the drunken and drugged up Bishop who proceeds to beat the crap out of Paul, sending him to the hospital with some serious damage. He lies unconscious for three days. Everyone wants Paul to either sue Bishop, quit defending his favorite team after being beaten by his own idol, or maybe just simply grow up and move on with life. It’s when writer/director Siegel’s thriller elements come into play in a bar involving a rival sports talk caller called "Philadelphia Phil" (Michael Rapaport) that the movie comes together and throws you a curveball, resulting in one of the greatest sports film endings of all time.
Who would’ve thought that you could combine sports, drama, comedy, intrigue, and a surprise ending to create such a spectacular triumph of independent cinema? I was surprised to learn, after watching the film, that Siegel is former editor-in-chief of The Onion. But when thinking back to his penchant for sports and strippers it kind of makes sense. Films like this show that there’s still lots of life left not just in the sports genre but in films that come out of the Sundance Film Festival. Everyone complains more every year that it’s all too Hollywood now, but when something this great, made on such a small scale and budget, can work its magic so well, there has to be something still working up there after all.
Article comments
1 - Daniel Terracina
The trailer for this movie really intrigues me. I'm anxious to watch it when it arrives in theaters.