Pretty Deadly Films celebrates the best of blockbusters and beyond. Our latest issue is available now.
The stakes in sports may seem to be simple matters of winners and losers, but from the underdogs to the kings, every sporting success is built on a thousand little cinematic stories: overcoming the doubters, the setbacks and hurdles, the community that comes together in a team, the joy of watching physical and mental excellence. On film, competing in sports is used as a stand-in for the whole range of the human experience – pursuing desire in Challengers, Gregory’s Girl, Personal Best, trying to overcome self-doubt in Rocky or I, Tonya, the obsession and aggression seen in Foxcatcher or Raging Bull, and so much more.
There have been plenty of amazing documentaries about sports, but we’re most interested in this issue in the fiction features that invoke the excitement and exhilaration, or the fear and frustration, that come from competing in sports. The films that you can recognise your own appreciation for sports in, or the ones that come closest to making you interested!
Pretty Deadly Films 15 features work by:
- Amy Lauren McGrath on I, Tonya
- Ethan Shattock on the Goal! series
- Graham Day on Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi
- Danielle Byrne on Dodgeball
- Katelyn McKenna on Bend it Like Beckham
- Luke Dunne on Challengers
- Francesco Bacci on Queer Sports Films
- Kayleigh Donaldson on The Novice
- Tony Black talks When Saturday Comes
