"Champions" follows a disgraced coach sentenced to community service coaching a
team of intellectually disabled basketball players. The film lacks respect for
the humanity of the players and uses them solely as a method for the coach's
redemption, with pithy one-liners and dated
jokes.
The team's personal lives are briefly shown from an anthropological distance,
but the script focuses more on the coach's romantic relationship. The film's
good intentions are undermined by its othering of the players, leading to a
cringe-worthy inspirational locker room speech. The filmmakers needed to offer
more grace to the characters and see their whole humanity. |