The best sports movies aren't just about sports. Take the recent movie of the day Rocky for example: it's about working class pride, about love and about overcoming adversity, so it's more than just a boxing movie. And the same applies to The Long Game, because while it's an uplifting underdog story set around the game of golf it's also about some of the toxic attitudes prevalent in the 1950s.
An uplifting sports movie based on a true story
The Long Game is based on the true story of five Mexican American high school students who were banned from playing golf in the 1950s by an all-white Texan country club. Refusing to take no for an answer, they built their own course, formed their own team, and became state champions.
As Variety put it: "Winner of an audience award at the 2023 SXSW film fest, The Long Game is an utterly predictable yet thoroughly engaging period drama." It's "appealingly told with sincerity and taste," says RogerEbert.com, while the Hollywood Outsider says that "The Long Game is an emotional crowd-pleaser".
While few critics can fault the heart of the film, many felt that it could have been more focused: Collider said that "while the book this film is based on, Mustang Miracle by Humberto G. Garcia, certainly documents an impressive story of an underdog overcoming odds, the film doesn't quite reach the heights it's trying to... It juggles too many things and ends up dropping the ball." While the movie does address racism head-on, "it struggles to find balance and nuance along the way".
The result is "a gently rousing family-friendly drama," The Hollywood Reporter says. It "could have used more topspin, but [it's] a winning round nonetheless", which is why it makes the cut for our best Netflix movies list.
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