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Mar 6, 2020 · O’Connor does not shy away from the emotion of his films. Instead, he embraces it. “The Way Back” is, essentially, a redemption arc. Jack is weighed down with disappointment. Affleck is in a very personal zone here. When he gets angry, there’s something still bottled up in his beet-red face.
Mar 4, 2020 · It denies Affleck the crutch of his natural charisma, or the chance to hide behind a story that’s bigger than himself. In fact, this sober little studio movie is so uncommonly effective because ...
Rated: 3/5 Nov 12, 2022 Full Review M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut Gavin O’Connor’s The Way Back has a smart script that doesn’t turn over the crucial sports moment or Ben Affleck’s career ...
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- Gavin O'connor
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Mar 5, 2020 · The Way BackStarring Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Michaela Watkins & Janina GavankarDirected by Gavin O’ConnorRIn theaters Friday, March 6, 2020. The Way Back sounds like a sports cliché. And it ...
- Ben Affleck convinces as a man fighting his demons while coaching a high school basketball team.
- Verdict
By Witney Seibold
Updated: May 21, 2020 11:50 pm
Posted: Mar 4, 2020 2:00 pm
With The Way Back, director Gavin O'Connor (Warrior, Miracle) has prepared a very familiar and very comforting, audience-pleasing stew. Sports movies have long been, throughout the broad history of the genre, reliable comfort food that can reasonably be applauded for cleaving to traditional, predictable story beats; daring originality is welcome in sports movies, of course, but falling back on cliché is not necessarily a vice for them. So while O'Conner, a slightly more thoughtful director than your average filmmaker, has perhaps added a few generous tablespoons of welcome soulful melancholy to The Way Back – effectively producing a satisfying meal – its baseline flavors are what make the film ultimately a genial and emotional entertainment. The rest of the review shall be, I assure you, free from further food metaphors.
In The Way Back, Ben Affleck – operating in full-on sad-sack mode, perhaps his best note as an actor – plays a bitter alcoholic construction worker named Jack whose life is clearly on the downward slope; in the first five minutes of the film, we see him sneaking beers at work, slipping gin into his coffee mug for the drive home, and taking a few depressive chugs from a can he keeps next to his shampoo in the shower. The Way Back, then is going to be less a film about winning championships and Big Games, and more about the delicate process of recovery from addiction.
Jack is also a former basketball star from his high school days, and those who meet him mention that fact frequently, often compounding how badly he's burned out. Into his grey milieu, Jack is offered a coaching position at his old high school where he is invited to take the school's flagging basketball team from – and we can all probably recite this part in unison – being the losing-est team in the state to being a hard-working band of teammates who have all begun to realize their talent and potential.
The Way Back is a gratifying sports movie that is made better than the average by some sadness, some realism, and Ben Affleck's performance. The Way Back might serve as an excellent double feature with Gavin O'Connor's Warrior, another sports movie that spices up (o.k., one last food metaphor) a perhaps-known sports narrative with excellent perform...
- Witney Seibold
Mar 4, 2020 · Ben Affleck finds redemption in sobering sports drama. The Way Back. : Review. We all know, logically, that actors aren’t the roles the play — that Ben Affleck isn’t actually Batman any more ...
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Mar 6, 2020 · Ben Affleck gives a tremendous comeback performance in The Way Back, a sturdy and sensitive redemption drama. Read our The Way Back review.
