We finish out our football season with another docuseries, jumping back into the world of Untold with Swamp Kings. On this episode, we talk abut what makes college football uniquely special, why this documentary is wrongly maligned, and why it is fairly criticized. In terms of leaving out the dirt on Urban Meyer and his Florida Gators, this four-part series is a head-scratcher — omitting the juicy, salacious controversies one is ostensibly expecting to see. But in doing so, we get another...

We are still in the thick of football season and back with an episode on Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets, or The Aaron Rodgers Show as we called it. Hear us discuss our likes, dislikes, and takeaways from this season. Next episode — and our final pigskin themed docuseries for the kickoff of football season — will be Untold: Swamp Kings. Please share, rate our pod, and share some more! Enjoy!

On this episode, we continue with our (un)cinematic streak of sports-themed streaming docuseries. This time, we’re talking Netflix’s Quarterback (2023), produced by none other than Peyton Manning and featuring 3 of QB’s at very different junctures of their career: Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. Justin Peterson of the Average Joe’s Movie Club Cast joins us discuss their work ethic, weekly regimen, off-the-field personalities, legacies, pregame preparations, football IQ,...

On this episode, we compare and contrast two docuseries on American Gladiators released in 2023: Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators (Netflix) and The American Gladiators Documentary (ESPN/30 for 30). American Gladiators was always one of our favorite TV programs from childhood and we had a blast recounting our memories of the toys, the ‘roided up gladiators, the madcap fun of 90s Trash TV, the exploits of the athletes bodies for meager pay, the scab-like...

On this episode, we talk about the rise of Jake Paul in the ring. From a YouTube hellion and obnoxious Influencer to a boxing star, Jake Paul has become one of the truly improbable sports transformations of the 21st century. He may be polarizing and milage varies greatly on his likability. But as a celebrity committed to a sudden calling after a quarter life crises and cultural cancellation, Jake Paul is a pretty remarkable figure, who has only proved himself time and time again as a...

Untold: Johnny Football represents an iconic era of college football, and offers an astute examination of one of the most immature quarterbacks to ever win a Heisman Trophy, Johnny Manziel. An affable, perennial partier, Manziel was notorious for his off-the-field antics and partying. He played the game with the same freewheeling sense of intuition and exigency he seemed to live, transplanting his unhinged frat boy personality onto the field. He also transformed the Texas A&M program into...

A bonus episode consisting of two separate interviews of Jordan & Paul on The Average Joe's Movie Club Cast. We discuss or movie tastes, preferences, and habits. Enjoy!

This week, we return to the world of Manga adaptations & join our friend Matt St. Jack of Anime Talk! to chat SK8 the Infinity (you can watch it on Crunchy Roll!). In the episode, we discuss the series' nostalgic tone, ardent-hearted appreciation of skateboarding, controversies surrounding queer-baiting, technical/scientific descriptions of boarding, quirky biblical allusions, and notable popularity. Check it out!

We’re back with our friends Aaron & Patrick from Feelin’ Film to talk 2023’s underdog sleeper hit of the year, Blackberry: a riveting, fictionalized biopic detailing the rise & fall of the now-infamous phone. Equally funny and thrilling, Blackberry taps into the spirit of Fincher’s The Social Network or Boyle’s Steve Jobs. It is filled with amazing performances and panache—appropriating Nat Geo-style long-lenses (a stylistic riff stolen from D.A. Pennebaker’s The War Room), leaning...

In the wake of Ted Lasso's series' finale, we decided to talk about Apple TV's feel-good sports-themed sensation by covering the show's entire 3 seasons. Painting broadly, we discuss the recurring pattern of gradually inverting character traits & expectations, contextualize the aesthetic choices/references/silliness/garishness within the canon of classic sitcoms, analyze the pavlovian opening credit sequence, debate the subtle 2nd and 3rd season shift toward prestige TV runtimes and...

On this episode, Harry LaBollita returns to discuss Netflix's hit series Break Point. Helmed by the same team behind F1: Drive to Survive, Break Point chronicles the world's up-and-coming tennis stars as they prepare and compete on the international professional tennis circuit, including all four Grand Slams and ATP and WTP tournaments. In Season 1, the cast of characters includes Nick Kyrgios (a "bad boy" from the Land Down Under), Matteo Berrettini (an Italian stallion with high ambitions...

We're back and this time we brought both Justin & Laura Khoo of Cows in the Field on the pod to discuss the 2006 cult sports-comedy classic Nacho Libre. Little did we know that this movie holds a truly special place in the Khoo's hearts (you'll have to check out the episode to hear exactly why). In addition to anecdotal associations, we get down to the nitty-gritty on what makes this such an indelible movie. We chat about the artisanal needle drops, the meticulous costume design and...

What's up, Underdogs!? ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE!? Well, you better be because we're back, we're joined by Lou Moon, and we're diving headfirst into a raunchy sports comedy about the wonderful world of WCW wrestling. Yes, that's right: we're powerbombing 2000's puerile cult classic Ready to Rumble! This fatuously fun film is absolutely stacked. It stars David Arquette, Scott Caan, Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, Martin Landau, and an ultra-hot Rose McGowan; it features epic, Slim Jim-inspired...

On this bonus episode, your cinematic underdogs join Feelin' Film for a guest appearance discussion on the feel-good, 2023 dad-flick Air. Directed by Ben Affleck, written by Alex Convery, and starring Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, and Chris Tucker, Air is the highly-manipulated backstory of Nike's acquisition of the GOAT Michael Jordan. Giving MJ not only a licensing fee, but also a slice of the residual pie with royalties on each sale, Nike capitulated...

Jed Bookout joins us on this episode as we explore Phil Alden Robinson's 1989 paternalistic, cornfed, heartland classic Field of Dreams. We discuss the film's disquieting subtexts and alternative readings, grappling with multiple surrealistic and existential readings. We discuss its similarities and lack thereof to the filmography and sensibilities of Douglas Sirk & Frank Capra. We discuss whether the central conceit and deus ex-machina of the film -- the mysterious, uncredited voice --...

Marc Dottavio of Unwatchables joins us to discuss Martin Scorsese's 1986 The Color of Money. A legacy sequel to The Hustler, this pool-hall classic incorporates all of Scorcese's usual obsessions, stylistically and thematically, in very sly ways. The whip pans, snap zooms, time-lapse sequences, needle drops, and gritty mise-en-scene nicely complement the slow-burn tempo and 8-ball sequences, setting the tone for a cunning exploration of authenticity and integrity in life and sport alike....

Hello, fellow underdogs! We're back with Matt Belenky — film producer/film writer/film aficionado/Pittsburgh native — to discus one of the best Die Hard clone movies ever put to screen: Peter Hyams' 90's classic, Sudden Death. Matt recently celebrated Sudden Death's timeless charm and Pittsburghian ethos in the Pittsburgh Orbit article Terrorism in Overtime: Sudden Death Turns 25, and he fills us in on all the local details you'll want to hear: the casting of real-life Penguins broadcasting...

On the latest episode, we go back to the basics and cover a newly released yet old-fashioned formulaic sports flick: Hustle. Released on Netflix in 2022, Hustle finds Adam Sandler in a groove. This film sits nicely between his prestige work in Uncut Gems and the juvenile sensibilities we've all become accustomed to expecting from the Happy Madison brand. It is packed full with NBA cameos and call-outs, and delivers its emotional and athletic beats with panache and intensity.  For a feel-good...

In anticipation of Super Bowl LVII, we're back with a follow up to our episode on Hard Knocks: Training Camp w/ The Detroit Lions, this time tackling Hard Knocks in Season: The Arizona Cardinals. This is easily our most sporty episode yet. As always, though, we transfer the narratives on the field into the world of celluloid dreams. Quite literally: To break the ice, we enumerate the stories and moments from the 2022-2023 NFL season we each think might one day translate fluidly to the silver...

We're back with a classic sports fusion film: Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer! Ashley Naftule (freelance writer, playwright at Space 55, Twitter humorist) joins us to celebrate the zany antics and devil-may-care CGI shenanigans of Hong Kong's slapstick king. It's a truly one-of-a-kind cinematic exercise, relocating Shaolin martial arts to the soccer pitch, and we have an absolute blast singing its praises and investigating its zany and somewhat taboo archetypal/gender dynamics.  Enjoy! 

We're back and chatting Captains, yet another underrated Netflix docuseries. This 8-episode journey chronicles the heartbreaking lows and glorious highs of 7 international captains as they lead their country's squad through qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Mikey from Screen Nerds Podcast joins the conversation and we have a blast discussing the doc's diverse cast of characters and cultures. (Given a few vague references, it will be helpful to know this episode was recorded...

On this special bonus episode, Mikey from Screen Nerds Podcast  joins the pod to discuss the timely 2022 Netflix docuseries, FIFA Uncovered. Dropped just before the World Cup in Qatar, this sprawling doc exposes the decades of corruption (wire fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, bribery) staining FIFA. For those who love true crime/in-depth investigative journalism, this might be right up your alley.  Declared as the World Cup of fraud, the takedown of dozens of FIFA officials by the FBI...

We're back with another Docuseries. Resembling in ways a real-life Ted Lasso, Welcome to Wrexham chronicles the purchase of Wrexham AFC by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny. The Wrexham Red Dragons are a fifth-tier Welsh football club, meaning they sit at the very bottom of the pyramid of professional UK leagues. Thus, the immediate goal of this venture is pretty simple: Promotion. Ryan and Rob certainly have the capital to make a splash. The question is whether money will translate onto the...

On the latest episode, we continue to explore the long-form format of docu-series by tackling HBO's Hard Knocks: Training Camp w/ the Detroit Lions. Sure, it's classifiable as Reality TV, but when it comes to getting an in-depth, behind-the-scenes, all-access look at the ins and outs of running a professional football team, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more illuminating source than the first and longest-running sports documentary series in TV history.  Produced by NFL Films and narrated...

We're back and joined by Mike Harris (director of Your Heart is a Dark & Rotten Place) to discuss Robert Altman's meandering buddy-comedy, California Split. Chronicling two gambling addicts as they bet on virtually everything (horses, poker, pick-up basketball games, boxing) and hang out with an amicable pair of hookers, Altman's cult-classic is both seductively charming while also a deceptively dark look into a seedy and niche American subculture.  We were honored to have Mike's input on...