Review of The Winning Season (2009) by Ola G — 16 Nov 2012

Bill (Sam Rockwell), is a divorced deadbeat dad and a former high school basketball star. Bill drinks too much, rarely sees his daughter from an old marriage, and busses tables at a local cafe. Bill's friend Terry (Rob Corddry), a high school principal, helps him land a job as the coach for the girls' varsity basketball team. Bill begins to regret his decision when he meets the girls on the team: Abbie (Emma Roberts), Tamra (Meaghan Witri), Mindy (Melanie Hinkle), Wendy (Rooney Mara), Lisa (Shareeka Epps), and Kathy (Emily Rios), a team missing some of the essential skills of basketball. The team improves under Bill's coaching and the girls advise him on his relationship with his daughter. The team's winning season, however, does not protect the girls from their real world difficulties..

"The Winning Season" is pretty much like "Bad News Bears" and "A League Of Their Own" and carries the same formula, but here it´s about basketball. Sam Rockwell is pretty good at playing a loser, we have seen it before and he does it pretty alright here as well. Nice to see both Emma Roberts and Rooney Mara, two radiant girls with solid futures in Hollywood. This is an ok mix of humour and serious subjects in life. But, "The Winning Season" won´t make a mark in your life, but rather just entertain you for an hour and a half. Nothing more, nothing less.