Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

The Way Back 

This is an emotionally hard hitting and well crafted sports film that is one of the best I’ve ever seen! Ben Affleck delivers his finest performance of his entire career delivering a emotionally charged performance that shows the most personal role he’s ever played onscreen. Gavin O’ Connor makes the outline of this film about Basketball and shaping up its team to bringing its full potential to the full front but that’s not what the film is about. He explores some very emotionally dark subjects within this film such as self destruction, alcoholism and grief and it’s about this character that is coaching its team to be better and it’s very much a character piece of by getting those kids back into the shape they can be the coach himself is also fixing himself to and it’s a very deep message to tackle. It works due to the fantastic performances from the entire cast and from the amazing direction by Gavin O’ Connor. 

Firstly, Their is so many sports films I’ve seen about basketball and the best sports films are the ones that tackle the subject around the sport like how Raging Bull is about a Boxer but it’s more about how he destroys himself outside of the ring or the film Warrior which is about two brothers and their distant relationship but are brought together when they take on fighting in the ring. And then theirs rocky which is about an Everyman making a name for himself even though it’s about boxing it’s about the character and the sport itself is the underlined tone. That’s what this film does and i will say basketball films in particular by this point can feel a bit formulaic but because of the approach of how this story was told it stood out to be more then any other film about basketball that I’ve seen. Gavin doesn’t glamorize any of the subject matter he discusses as i actually was quite impressed by how brutally honest he pushed the subject matter of alcoholism as it never felt preachy but felt genuine and real. 

Secondly, The acting by the whole cast is fantastic! All of the kids who played on the basketball team all gave charismatic and energetic performances that made each one stand out as they all gave different styles and attributes to their characters to what made them so engaging to watch. The one stand out from the rest of the kids though was Brandon Wilson gave a fantastic breakout performance of a kid not willing to accept the fact of the great potential he has as a basketball player and shows incredible vulnerability and emotional depth that really impressed the hell out of me. Then you have Ben Affleck who was perfect for this film now his performance never felt to showy or hey look at me I’m an actor he’s very subtle in his portrayal of this character. Ben Affleck shows a side to him that he’s not tapped into before that emotionally bares him and gives a genuine raw performance that is honestly the best work he’s ever done. The film is amazingly well acted with performances that feel incredibly real and authentic to the point where it didn’t even seem like acting but like a documentary and everyone involved gave tremendous work. 

Lastly, The Way Back is a emotionally charged character study with sports as the underlined tone but that’s not what the film is about. The film is about self healing and when it goes to the depths and darkness of the heart it never holds back and shows the brutal truth of addiction from a incredibly personal performance given by its lead Ben Affleck delivering a career best performance Gavin O’ Connor brings great layers of genuine emotion incredible heart and a motivational story of self healing and the message of togetherness  as a team and the sense of  working hard can achieve you great things this is one of the most human and layered sports films I’ve seen in a very very long time I recommend everyone go check this film out. 

Rated R : for language throughout including some sexual references

This film centres around the man who in his prime was the best basketball player of his town and since has fallen into alcoholism and a path of self isolation and when he is approached to coach this team to victory he learns by helping them he starts to learn to help himself get better 

Ben Affleck : Ben delivers the best performance of his career! Ben Affleck hasn’t been in the spotlight for sometime now his last film he did that went to theatres was 2 years ago now which was the Justice League. He’s been going through a lot in the last few years and that’s why this role for a lot of People can see he can relate to the character in a lot of ways. He plays a coach of a basketball team that takes on the position at his school to help this team grow to its full potential but it’s how he also self heals in the process. As throughout the film we see him suffering from a addiction to alcohol and Ben himself has suffered from the same addiction so he can definitely relate to that emotional pain and it shows onscreen. Theirs a scene in the film where he has a ton of beers and he keeps going back to get another for hours and it’s one of the hardest scenes to watch and he says nothing expect into the phone he’s talking to and you can see from his eyes alone the sheer pain and emotional agony he’s in and how he wants help but doesn’t know how to do it. And then their will be other moments where he will be confronted about his drinking and he will start off calm and then end up screaming and the sheer anger and fire in his voice is so powerfully acted. As the way he acts and moves doesn’t feel like it’s acting when Ben talks the sheer impact of the words mean something you feel feel the weight of it hit you like a freaking brick. Theirs scenes he will play a scene with great ferocious Intensity and the next he can be very quiet and just give a look and say so much it’s such a personal performance that he’s giving so much to. He will be so full of sheer authority one moment and the next he can barley stand and you can see the mask he wears he tries to hold it together but on the inside he’s falling apart and it’s just a emotionally charged performance like I said as Ben has never ever been this emotionally vulnerable onscreen and he showcases a whole side to him we had not seen and wow is it amazing to watch unfold it’s so subtle but yet so powerful as it truly is his greatest onscreen performance ever he deserves awards for this performance he’s that good. Ben gives a performance of emotional sadness and redemption as by the end he starts to heal himself and he’ll himself and it got me all choked up because you see him from this mess he was in the beginning and over the course of the film starts coming to terms with himself and helping his state of mind and it’s just brilliantly brought to the screen by Ben. He digs deep into his soul in this performance And shows such raw emotion in ways that will break your heart. I couldn’t see anyone else playing this role it seemed like a great way to help Ben overcome what he’s been struggling through this character in a very honest way and it bleeds through into the performance so spectacularly all in all a tour de force performance by Ben Affleck. 

Gavin O’ Connor : Gavin gave incredible direction here! He has directed some truly fantastic films over the years like Miracle and Warrior and now the Way Back joins that list. Gavin brings a level of humanity and truth to his films that a lot of sports films don’t have and it’s a very specific style he splashes on his films. As Warrior was about Brotherhood this film tackles the topic of substance abuse and he doesn’t sugar coat it at all no matter how ugly or dark it gets he will go down that path and show it for all the darkness it is. He shows this grounded reality in this film that makes it feel like a documentary it doesn’t even feel like acting when you see Ben’s character it seems so genuine and authentic you forget he’s even acting that’s how good the actors in this film are. He also never makes it cheesy or try to gain sympathy from the audience with just emotional scenes he’s able to craft genuine and real emotion that tugs at your heart strings. Now the film he showcases here as well is a film about overcoming the darkness in your life while wrapping that story in a sports story which was so smartly done as the team is the outlet for this guy to get better and distract himself from his inner demons. Gavin is able to bring inspirational crowd cheering moments but also then be able to switch it sit in the same scene and talk about things like grief and self distraction and it never hits you over the head it’s very subtle and smartly done. The film is so multi layered in ways I haven’t seen a sports film and I mentioned before how films of this genre can feel formulaic he steered clear from those tropes and showcases things the genre hasn’t brought to the screen in sometime. Overall Gavin looks for the humanity in people and loves telling very personal and human story’s about struggle and overcoming it wrapped around a bigger canvas and here he does that once again in such a brilliant way. Great direction once again by Gavin.