Game Day

Pleasant movie with a bit of a preachy message. The preachiness is mellow enough to enjoy the movie.

Family-friendly movie, minimal amount of unpleasant things on screen

Minimal spoiler, not really :-) the story happens in Chicago, and one of the main characters mentions restroom instead of washroom which took me by surprise :D.

Game Day is not really about basketball. So it's not a sports movie. We watch Ricki, a self-centered and privileged woman fail miserably with her startup.

Then she grapples with her new existence as a third-rate cubicle drone. Yet over time we witness her personal/character development with increasing interest.

For some reason I was hooked from the start even though it's just a slow minimalist indie movie. As we watch Ricki form an unlikely friendship with her new "coach", a troubled youth from a completely different background, we discover more about her dysfunctional family too.

Both the startup scene and the "hood" get depicted quite accurately yet mainly serve the story of the main characters, Ricki and Lucas. There is also a slowly developing romantic side story which works well but never really takes center stage.

The other characters mostly assist Ricki's self improvement journey. At the end she's much more empowered and likable and we know why. This is like a look behind the scenes of the shiny startup world, office politics and the wrong side of the tracks you usually won't find in other movies.

The story is quite unique yet Game Day plays it a bit too safe. You won't see any Jungle Fever e.g. Sure, the boyfriend is a communist but it's more of a running gag. So it's just an 8 for me. I gave it a 7 at first but as it's currently way underrated I decided that 8 is more fitting.

Yet I hope the writer/director will create even more courageous and inspiring movies in the future. It's already quite impressive how deep of a story he told in his very first feature movie, especially given that the main character is a woman.

The 101 minutes did not feel that long at all despite the slow pace. The basketball game at the end even added some suspense and drama.