Untold: Johnny Football represents an iconic era of college football, and offers an astute examination of one of the most immature quarterbacks to ever win a Heisman Trophy, Johnny Manziel. An affable, perennial partier, Manziel was notorious for his off-the-field antics and partying. He played the game with the same freewheeling sense of intuition and exigency he seemed to live, transplanting his unhinged frat boy personality onto the field. He also transformed the Texas A&M program into a powerhouse over the course of a critical two year stint, pulled off a ridiculous heist to get drafted in the 1st round of the NFL draft, and  became a mythic bust for the Cleveland Browns.

In the episode, we discuss Johnny’s wild shenanigans, the WTF moments of the documentary (his father faking a cardiac arrest, his friend planting a story about a false oil inheritance to deflect attention from under-the-table side hustles that violated the NCAA, his infamous bender in Vegas), and our letdown that the doc didn’t press Johnny harder with pointed, direct questions about his insane life of drugs, celebrities, and debauchery. For those who know nothing about Manziel, this is a great place to start. For those who’ve been fascinated by his mythic downfall, this is a bit too broad and breezy. Nonetheless, it’s a great conversation starter on one of the most stupefyingly immature yet likable athletes of the 21st century. 

Enjoy! 

A bonus episode consisting of two separate interviews of Jordan & Paul on The Average Joe's Movie Club Cast. We discuss or movie tastes, preferences, and habits. Enjoy!

This week, we return to the world of Manga adaptations & join our friend Matt St. Jack of Anime Talk! to chat SK8 the Infinity (you can watch it on Crunchy Roll!). In the episode, we discuss the series' nostalgic tone, ardent-hearted appreciation of skateboarding, controversies surrounding queer-baiting, technical/scientific descriptions of boarding, quirky biblical allusions, and notable popularity. Check it out!

We’re back with our friends Aaron & Patrick from Feelin’ Film to talk 2023’s underdog sleeper hit of the year, Blackberry: a riveting, fictionalized biopic detailing the rise & fall of the now-infamous phone. Equally funny and thrilling, Blackberry taps into the spirit of Fincher’s The Social Network or Boyle’s Steve Jobs. It is filled with amazing performances and panache—appropriating Nat Geo-style long-lenses (a stylistic riff stolen from D.A. Pennebaker’s The War Room), leaning into faux-documentary comedic beats (Christopher Guest films, The Office), celebrating the by-the-bootstraps/punk-rock ethos of indie filmmaking (Primer, Slacker, Clerks), and heavily stylizing itself with erratic camera shifts and short, snappy, WanderCam pans (which approximate a sense of eavesdropping on tense, anxiety-inducing affairs). It’s also a topical cautionary message about the dangers of unchecked greed and myopic business decisions, and in this way it resembles the recent slate of streaming mini-series documenting market-driven folly (The Dropout, WeCrashed, Fyre Fraud, etc.).  

In the wake of Ted Lasso's series' finale, we decided to talk about Apple TV's feel-good sports-themed sensation by covering the show's entire 3 seasons. Painting broadly, we discuss the recurring pattern of gradually inverting character traits & expectations, contextualize the aesthetic choices/references/silliness/garishness within the canon of classic sitcoms, analyze the pavlovian opening credit sequence, debate the subtle 2nd and 3rd season shift toward prestige TV runtimes and overtones, and proclaim our overarching verdict on whether it deserves to endure in infamy or posterity.

On this episode, Harry LaBollita returns to discuss Netflix's hit series Break Point. Helmed by the same team behind F1: Drive to Survive, Break Point chronicles the world's up-and-coming tennis stars as they prepare and compete on the international professional tennis circuit, including all four Grand Slams and ATP and WTP tournaments. In Season 1, the cast of characters includes Nick Kyrgios (a "bad boy" from the Land Down Under), Matteo Berrettini (an Italian stallion with high ambitions and an equally successful girlfriend, Ajla Tomljanovic) Taylor Fritz (a So-Cal native who overcomes injury to out Nadal in the Indian Wells championship), Paula Badosa (a Spanish model dealing with mental health issues), Ons Jabeur (a Tunisian standout representing an entire continent), and Felix Auger-Aliassime (a Montreal-based wunderkind who just might be the next great).

We focus on a few primary themes: namely, the emergence of mental health crises and the perils of neuroses in the sport. This leads us into a fascinating discussion about the inherent pressures of tennis, the grueling attrition of playing year-round on the pro circuit, the attrition of mental fortitude due to the overwhelming speed of the game, the isolated vulnerability of playing a singles tournament, and the relativistic medley of psychological approaches and philosophies deployed by the various teams in hopes of curbing negative thoughts before they spiral into destructive self-sabotage on the court. We also debate who we think might be the next poster child for tennis as the Big Three (Nadal, Federer, Djokovic) begin to retire or suffer from the law of diminishing returns with age.

Enjoy!

We're back and this time we brought both Justin & Laura Khoo of Cows in the Field on the pod to discuss the 2006 cult sports-comedy classic Nacho Libre. Little did we know that this movie holds a truly special place in the Khoo's hearts (you'll have to check out the episode to hear exactly why). In addition to anecdotal associations, we get down to the nitty-gritty on what makes this such an indelible movie. We chat about the artisanal needle drops, the meticulous costume design and visual craftsmanship, the unique tonal blend of childlike silliness (fart jokes) and hipster cleverness (including satirical jabs at Catholicism), the endlessly quotable one-liners, the hilariously off-putting accents, the comedic mastery of Jack Black's eyebrows and inflections, and the overall feel-good timelessness of this endearingly ridiculous tale about a monastic cook clandestinely pursuing a career as a Luchador to subsidize field trips for the orphans.

So go snatch some eagle eggs, nurture your mystical powers, and get ready to enjoy our conversational smackdown on everything there is to know about Nacho Libre. And always remember: It is fun to wrestle. A nice pile-drive to the face; or a punch to the face; but you cannot do it because it is in the Bible not to wrestle your neighbor.

What's up, Underdogs!? ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE!? Well, you better be because we're back, we're joined by Lou Moon, and we're diving headfirst into a raunchy sports comedy about the wonderful world of WCW wrestling. Yes, that's right: we're powerbombing 2000's puerile cult classic Ready to Rumble! This fatuously fun film is absolutely stacked. It stars David Arquette, Scott Caan, Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, Martin Landau, and an ultra-hot Rose McGowan; it features epic, Slim Jim-inspired cameos from a horde of professional wrestlers (Goldberg, Booker T, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Sid Vicious, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rey Mysterio Jr., and of course, Michael Buffer); and it's written by the king of juvenilia/silly kid-skewing sports comedies, Steven Brill.

What are you waiting for? Grab those dusty spandex, queue up your entrance song, and join us as we perform a tag-team suplex on this hilariously dumb movie, which achieves something rare in Cinema, becoming the equivalent of mixing Red Bull & an Icee. No doubt, this thing is frozen in time - stuck in that strangely boyish space we knew as the late 90s/early 00s. It's one hell of a brain freeze: a serially ridiculous prepubescent buddy comedy with a shit-eating grin on its face. Why are you still reading this? Wipe that Cheshire grin away and get in the damn ring!

Enjoy!

Jed Bookout joins us on this episode as we explore Phil Alden Robinson's 1989 paternalistic, cornfed, heartland classic Field of Dreams. We discuss the film's disquieting subtexts and alternative readings, grappling with multiple surrealistic and existential readings. We discuss its similarities and lack thereof to the filmography and sensibilities of Douglas Sirk & Frank Capra. We discuss whether the central conceit and deus ex-machina of the film -- the mysterious, uncredited voice -- is the remnants of a Berkeley acid trip, a biblical parable, or the summoning of a cult leader. We discuss whether the film would turn into a sinister horror movie if the James Horner score was removed. We discuss Kevin Costner's salt of the earth gravitas and onscreen persona. In fact, we discussed so much we ended up matching the official runtime of the movie.

Enjoy!