Review of Undrafted (2016) by Denis S — 12 Jan 2017

I don't understand the hate "undrafted" recieved from critics. Maybe were they expecting something funny like "the Replacements" or "the Benchwarmers", I don't know.

However Undrafted does not fit into "comedy" category, neither does it fit "drama". This movie is outside categories. First of all from what I understand of it, the intent was not to get the laughs but to show love and affection, it's the vision of one particular moment in the existence of a little baseball summer team.

Spoiler alert : the underdog is not going to fight his way to be the world series mvp at the end. And it's a good thing. The director tells his brother tale with an accurate delicacy that makes you feel that there is something real in there fom the first second to the last.

"Real" being the keyword. The characters are good, their emotions and struggles are credible, far from stereotypes. The actors do a good job to the point where you say to yourself "damn, I know that guy".

And then you are hooked up, even if the whole movie happens in that unity of time and space : a baseball game (not bad considering that I regularly get bored watching big blockbusters that make you travel across the world or the galaxy).

I may concede that you will not roll on the floor laughing or get the best punchline of cinema history, but condemning "undrafted" because of that would be missing the point. After seeing this movie, you feel like you've just spent a little baseball summer game with the players on their bench, you got to know them a little bit more, you shared something.

Far from heroic trajectories and grandiose sentiments, Undrafted gives us a rare moment of simple and real humanity. The only one that counts.