THE LATE GAME (2024)

There is much truth in THE LATE GAME. If you ever played in a beer league or midnight hockey you are going to feel right at home with this film. My brother spent years playing various leagues, playing at all hours (literally) day and night. And because he was a good goalie, he played with everyone from regular guys off the street to NHL players. He saw it all, and because I often went to his games, I saw a great deal of what went on. If you want to know what happens in the beer leagues, then THE LATE GAME is going to clue you in.

The film is set on a single day. Riley is unpacking at his new apartment,  Getting depressed he goes to the bar and after seeing the girl who broke his heart, meet a guy from a year earlier who he has in his phone as "Hockey Guy".  They need an extra guy for the team, would Riley want to play? He begs off, but ends up going to the game anyway.  What happens is the film.

While this is a comedy, it isn't always played as such. Listening to the guys talk and watching how they move, they aren't really being funny but  just being the sort of guys who play in late games. The banter is dead on. I've actually heard variations of a couple of the conversations.  They are very funny in the best sort of a way.

The reason this works so well is writer director Jeff Tyner keeps things tethered to reality. This is not a budget Hollywood film with flashy set pieces and a score that sells every joke, this is simply life joyously playing out before us. Sure, there are great bits and funny lines, but they are there in the service of the story. You are going to remember the jokes as part of a whole gem of a film, not just a sequence or two.

This is a slice of life as seen through a comedic prism. All of it is humorous but also low key key enough to make the film so much better than if it was played as a loud comedy. Why because we come out of the film not so much thinking of the jokes, but the people who told them. We are watching people and not characters (for the most part) and they drive the story

I need to point out the hockey sequences and say that they are absolutely brilliant. The way they were put together is better than most big budget Hollywood films. I found myself wondering how in the hell they shot them since the shots go together. Actions genuinely carry over from shot to shot so that the sequences feel that it was all caught by multiple cameras at the same time...which I don't think was how it was done. This is the sort of editing that should get the film in the Oscar mix, assuming that Oscar would even notice this film.

The reality is the whole film is technically that good, and I should wax poetic about it, but that's not going to get you to buy a ticket.

What is going to get you to buy the ticket is knowing that this is a wonderful film. It's a film that really hit home for me.  I laughed , I smiled and  saw some bits of my life in the people on the screen.  While the set up before they get to the rink can be a bit awkward, due to the fact that it has to get us to the rink, once we get there THE LATE GAME just goes. How well it goes was really clear the second time I saw the film and could see how things went together.

This is a super film. While I know, as with all comedies, that some  people may not click with it, I think most of you reading this are going to love it.

What a joy.

One of the great finds of 2024.