Balls Out (2014 film)

Synopsis

Caleb (Jake Lacy) is a fifth-year senior preparing to graduate. Not quite ready to settle into the life, expectations, and realities outside of his college, he decides that he wants to reassemble The Panthers, an intramural football team that had to shut down after one of the team members ended up getting partially paralyzed for life. Doing so is going to be far more difficult than he expected.

Cast

Production

The films script was written by Bradley Jackson during his sophomore year at the University of Texas, where he was inspired to create the script after listening to his friends brag about their intramural sports games. Jackson expressed his desire to have Andrew Disney direct the film, as he greatly enjoyed his work. Nikki Reed was later confirmed to be performing in the film, as were Beck Bennett and Michael Hogan. Jackson and Disney raised funds for the film through a successful Kickstarter campaign, and filming began on July 12, 2013 in Austin, Texas and continued for six weeks, ending on August 22, 2013.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2014. The film went on to screen at the Montclair Film Festival on May 4, 2014. and the Seattle International Film Festival on June 6, 2014. The film was picked up by MGM and Orion Pictures and was retitled Balls Out. The film was released in a limited release and video on demand on June 19, 2015.

Critical reception

The film was met with positive reviews from film critics. It currently holds a 75% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 reviews. Andy Webster of The New York Times praised the film for its self-aware humor and talented cast for having comedic timing, signaling out Kate McKinnon as a standout, concluding that "she displays talent too vast for the small screen. Now watch her career rocket." Nick Prigge of Slant Magazine gave a mixed review of the film, saying that it was at odds with itself of being either a straight sports film or a satire of the genre. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly said that while theres some funny commentary on the absurdity of sports films he found the film less a feature film and more a long television sketch.

It won both the Cinema Dulce Best of Fest and Best Actor (Jake Lacy) awards at the Hill Country Film Festival and the Best Guilty Pleasure Audience Award at the Seattle International Film Festival. It also won the Best Sport Comedy award in The Vancouver Suns 2015 Sports Market Movie Awards.