Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Director: Kyle Marvin
Quick Impressions:
For the past couple of months, I’ve been playing catch up on all likely Oscar nominees and other holiday movies, and every single time my daughter and I go to the theater, we see a long trailer for 80 for Brady that plays like a mini-movie. (“How many more things can happen in this movie?” she whispered incredulously the first time. “I feel like everything has happened.”)
It got to the point that we finally walked out of one film saying to each other, “One thing’s for sure—we’ve got to see 80 for Brady.”
You have no idea the effect this trailer was having on other audience members. After The Fabelmans, the women sitting next to us would not stop gushing about how excited they were to see 80 for Brady. They were so into it and so vivacious themselves. (“I hope we sit next to them when we go,” my daughter confided, hoping to hear more of their boisterous anecdotes.)
At first, I didn’t know if my daughter wanted to see it ironically—I mean she is fourteen with a sarcastic bent—or if she was genuinely excited. I’m not sure if she knew either. We were just swept up in the excitement of the women all around us and wanted a mother/daughter day.
As I thought about it, though, I realized, “Why in the world would we be seeing this film ironically? All four leads are Oscar nominees. Three of them are winners. They’re all still big stars right now. Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. Tom Brady is retiring. It’s written by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins who also wrote Booksmart, a movie we loved (pretty much entirely because of Billie Lourd’s character).”
As I pointed this out while badly parking the car, she said, “I’m just curious to discover what the audience for this movie is. I’m sure it has one…”
“It’s everybody, Penelope!” I told her. “It’s everyone! When Daddy and I went to see Living the other day, everybody else at the theater was going to see 80 for Brady—even a dog!” (It was such a cute dog. It popped up in a purse right next to me, but then left quickly when its owner realized we weren’t watching 80 for Brady.)
“It’s like Titanic,” I told her. “There’s something for everybody. Whether you love/hate Jane Fonda, or love/hate Tom Brady…”
Unlike the other day, not everyone was going to 80 for Brady. (Some people were going to Titanic! That’s out again right now, too!) The crowd in front of us were headed into Magic Mike’s Last Dance. (Probably not the best choice for us. I took my husband to see Magic Mike, and when the power went out, we discovered he was the only man in the sold out auditorium. I can just imagine telling people, “This time I brought my eighth grade daughter. I’m bad at planning outings.”)
I liked 80 for Brady, and when it was over, my daughter exclaimed, “What a wonderful movie! That was just so happy and enjoyable to watch. What a great story! I loved that!”
The Good:
I know some people who love Tom Brady. My cousin is one. But I know far more people who despise both Brady and the Patriots. Maybe it’s because I live in Texas, but I know an awful lot of people who hate Tom Brady.
Inexplicably, I’m a Steelers fan. (Well, there’s an explanation. I wasn’t interested in football until I met my husband. The first game he showed me was the Steelers vs. the Jaguars. I didn’t understand football, and he was trying to teach me. But…nobody scored a touchdown the entire game. The commentators kept talking about how Ben Roethlisberger had just been in a motorcycle wreck and probably shouldn’t even be playing. So nothing was happening in the game, but the Steelers had the more compelling narrative, and I imprinted on them like a baby duckling. I’ve tried so hard to like the Cowboys and the Texans.
My husband usually watches football the way I watch Jeopardy!, rooting for everyone, because he likes fantasy football. So we would watch all the games. (I’ve heard people say that’s basically no different than D&D, and yeah, that’s why he likes it. He DMs for us, too.) We frequently experienced little…conflicts because he was interested in plays that were exciting and statistically compelling, and I was rooting for the Steelers even if their defense had to murder the other team’s players on the field.
So…I’m not a Patriots fan. But back when we were playing all this fantasy (for years), I kept drafting Tom Brady as my quarterback. I always found myself drafting in a weird position, and he was a good value when I could pick him up. It kept happening. So…do I like Tom Brady? I like winning games. Even now I get a little dopamine hit every time I see him complete a pass. That makes it hard to dislike him the way most people I know do.
I dislike him even less after watching this movie because I dare you to dislike someone when he has such an adorable/quasi-delusional relationship with Lily Tomlin. They spend the entire movie cheering each other on. It’s so sweet and heart-warming.
I think it’s great that Tom Brady did this movie. I’m sure it’s flattering to him to have an entire film staged around him, but still, it’s an extremely wholesome movie, and it’s inspired by a true story. When my daughter saw that, she gasped out loud in delight. She was overcome with joy.
The movie is heavily fictionalized, of course, but it is based on five women who were friends for seventy years, loved football, and formed an Over 80 for Brady club, complete with T-shirts. One of their grandsons works in Hollywood and pitched the idea as a movie. My daughter was so thrilled. She said, “I hope they had a lot of creative control.” I don’t think they had any creative control, but those able did get to attend a special screening. (Now they’re over ninety. One has died.)
The movie is always pleasant to watch, and it’s funny, though don’t expect to laugh out loud incessantly until you fall on the floor crying. What I liked best actually is that the women have an adventure four women in their eighties could realistically have. (Sally Field is not eighty. My daughter was so amused when her character kept pointing this out.)
All four of the women are so sympathetic. Each has a lovely part. The one who made me laugh most consistently was Rita Moreno, probably because situations that develop around her character are so funny to me. She proceeds with a kind of grand illogic that I often have. (“Your husband didn’t divorce you. He died!”)
I love what the film does with Jane Fonda. (I always wonder to myself, “How did she get such amazing plastic surgery that actually looks good?” It seems so hard to find that quality of plastic surgery!) I like the way we see that yes, she does look young. But we also see her wall of wigs, frequent shots of her hands. We see that she’s a very sexual, very romantic person, but that she also has trouble with her relationships, that she’s looking for something she’s not finding. Her character writes Gronk erotica, and I love the way so many people connect with her over that. In some ways her age is irrelevant, and yet, she feels her age. There’s a lot of vulnerability to the performance and complexity to the character. Innumerable things that could be cheap jokes instead become points of human connection.
I could relate a lot to Sally Field’s character. (This happens to me a lot. “You’re responsible, Sarah.” Five seconds later, “I lost the thing.”) My daughter was so touched by the way her conflict with her husband (Bob Balaban) played out.
Lily Tomlin kept making us cry over and over again. She has the emotional core of the story. She’s the one who hasn’t won an Oscar (though, of course, she was nominated for Nashville, a movie my daughter needs to see). I kept thinking, “There’s time to change that.” This isn’t the sort of movie you win Oscars for, but in the right role, I could imagine Lily Tomlin winning an Oscar right now.
I like the fact that the women’s adventures are exciting, yet grounded in reality. They’re able to accomplish some surprising things, but it’s always through talent or experience they might realistically have. (Granted, the connection between Tom Brady and Lily Tomlin is not realistic, but it’s practically the only thing that isn’t. And even that is sort of a metaphor for the attachment many people feel to famous figures.)
The supporting cast is fantastic. There’s a new famous face around every corner. Glynn Turman totally won my heart in this movie. I remember really liking him as Toledo in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Jimmy O. Yang also cracked me up. And Billy Porter’s character works magic for them, so he’s very likeable. This movie has a bottomless cast. There’s also Harry Hamlin, Sara Gilbert, Patton Oswalt, Guy Fieri, Alex Moffat, and, of course, several famous football players.
Probably the best thing about the film is its charming lack of cynicism. It’s a pleasant watch, start to finish.
Best Scene:
I love the entirety of the party because of their reaction to it. You watch beginning of Babylon, and then watch this, and think, “There’s not really anything that outrageous happening at this party.” Surely they’ve been to more outrageous parties. I have, and I’m very boring. But I also am sometimes overwhelmed in situations that should not be threatening or scary. (Also people have frequently asked me, “Are you sure you should drive?” when I’m completely sober.) There’s not really that much going on at this party, but there’s a lot going on with them.
Best Action Sequence:
I like it when they break Maura out of the retirement home (where she lives even though she has a house).
Best Scene Visually:
Every time Lou talks to Tom Brady, the film feels simultaneously more whimsical and more serious.
The Negatives:
If you’re looking for something that’s going to make you fall on the floor weeping with hysterical laughter, this is not that movie. I’ve seen episodes of The Golden Girls that made me laugh more. (Notice, that’s not an insult. Golden Girls is exceptionally funny.) I’m just saying don’t expect some wild, zany comedy.
80 for Brady somehow manages to be extremely realistic and entirely unrealistic simultaneously. So the hijinks is low-key, but the fact that they’re even in some of these situations lets us know this is largely a fantasy. It’s a heart-warming story. It’s not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it is the kind of film that will brighten your day. It’s infectiously cheerful.
And you don’t have to like the Patriots or Tom Brady to enjoy it. You could hate his guts and still find the women’s journey both fun and satisfying.
My daughter said in surprise, “That was only an hour and thirty-eight minutes? It felt longer.”
“That’s because the pace is relatively slow,” I told her. Stuff happens continuously, but at a rather measured pace.
One thing I like is that the film doesn’t make the women’s age a gimmick. Women of any age could be having the inner conflicts these characters struggle with. (Granted, death and illness come more relentlessly with time, but anyone can have health crisis or lose a spouse.)
Overall:
This was the perfect film for a mother/daughter matinee. Both my daughter and I enjoyed 80 for Brady, and I was even more delighted to watch her find a film so heart-warming since she’s often put off by light-hearted movies that heavily feature romance. Friendship works for her, I guess. It worked for me, too.