I unashamedly and unironically made my way back to the cinema to see The Way Back. I made my contactless payment, got my popcorn in a prepacked bag and sat in my isolated seat; it seemed so fitting. The cinemas are doing their darndest to assure that the COVID-19 doesn’t spread through their centres and I was so excited to be back; even more than I anticipated, actually. The Way Back follows Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck); a man in his forties with terrible alcoholism, still reeling from a marriage separation. Jack used to be a star basketball player when he was at high school, and a call out of the blue from Father Ed Devine (John Aylward) sees Jack return to his old Catholic school to take over the reigns as head basketball coach. The Way Back has Ben Affleck team up with director Gavin O’Connor for the second time in a row after working together on the movie The Accountant.
A great performance like this from Ben Affleck makes his shocking turn in The Last Thing He Wanted look like the anomaly. Affleck is fantastic at being mopey, and Jack has some serious suffering going on. When the movie started, Jack is working monotonously on a construction site, and I had the thought that this movie could be looked at as a spin-off story for Chuckie Sullivan, twenty years later after good Will Hunting moved away; the vital backstory that Jack used to be an elite basketballer in his teens sort’ve ruined that for me, but it was fun for a while. Jack takes to coaching like a duck to water. In fact, his personal problems don’t interfere with his new coaching position until very late in the movie. There’s a tension I felt when Jack is first introduced to the struggling basketball team, because we’ve seen how volatile Jack can be and he isn’t going to handle being challenged by a cocky bunch of undisciplined teenagers very well. But Coach Cunningham is barely challenged; there’s the small event when he kicks Marcus (Melvin Gregg) off the team for being late, but he finds a dedicated captain straight away in Brandon (Brandon Wilson) and demands Chubbs (Charles Lott Jr.) give up his pregame dancing with minimal pushback. Unlike the pious Coach Carter, in the Samuel L. Jackson movie, these kids are accepting of their new coach and willing to show respect straight away. Anytime Jack’s personal demons start creeping into his new role, they disappear; he easily gives up the drink as soon he assistant coach Dan (Al Madrigal) presses him on it, even though he’s been shown to hit the bars hard, and drink a slab by himself. His swearing and crumbled Christian faith almost become a running joke in this dramatic movie, where his attitude for winning games of basketball is most correct above all else. His violent anger never rears its head again after he flips at his sister and swats the beer can off the table – yes, he’s booted out of the stadium for abusing the referees in one game, but he apologises to Brandon and nobody cares. Perhaps that’s the point; perhaps The Way Back means to show how easy Jack can find forgetting his troubles once he finds a thing worth moving forward with. It’s only when Jack’s friend’s son sadly comes out of remission that he backslides, bringing back a familiar sense of helplessness. The early depictions of Jack’s depressing routine are presented expertly, with a deep focus on alcoholism, and later interactions with Jack’s wife Angela (Janina Gavanka) also reveal further sorrows in Jack’s life. The basketball stuff can also be thrilling by itself, but it’s almost like the two stories run alongside each other and don’t intersect until near the end credits.
Movies where a sporting team lifts themselves out of the basement are a dime a dozen, and although well-made, The Way Back doesn’t do a lot to separate itself from the pack. Similarly, the personal trauma Jack is dealing with is not as raw as in something like Manchester by the Sea or as poignant as in A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood. Even A Star is Born is probably better at showing a depressed man get a second wind, and ultimately crumble under personal circumstances. The only places The Way Back stands out for me is with the depiction of alcoholism, and the catalyst in which Jack falls back to his self-derogating habit; the event is so extraneous and far removed from himself that I felt the confusion in Jack’s inability to explain it to himself as he is getting fired. The final shot of the movie is also completely noteworthy, where the way back and a rediscovery of basketball fully come together on a dusk-lit court, as perfect as Red meeting Andy in Zihuantanejo; The Shawshank Redemption. And with ‘seconds to go in the big game’ Jack makes a stubborn coaching decision beknown to us to be counted by the opposing team. You can’t bear to watch Coach Cunningham fail, but it’s not often a movie rewards someone for putting all their eggs in one basket. It’s a small moment, but if felt rare.
Lastly, I didn’t realise how little I know about the gameplay of basketball, but I really enjoyed that aspect of the movie too. Jack’s mantra to his players is ‘play like you have a chip on your shoulder’, and it made me remember how great the ‘unsociable Hawks’ were a few years ago in the AFL. But since High School Musical, it’s just not a basketball movie without Chad shouting “What team? What team? What team?” over and over again; that was the quote that popped into my head as I walked back to my car that night.
3.5
Support your local cinema! They’re reopening now with hits from earlier in the year. If you’re yet to see 1917 on the big screen, I mean, do you even movie, bro? The Invisible Man will also prove a critical talking point in movies for 2020, if you haven’t seen that either. A few cinemas around me are even showing classics, so if you’ve ever wanted to relive movies on the big screen like Fight Club, The Incredibles or Titanic, now’s your chance. My local cinema is even-even offering to rent out their screens to gamers and their friends, as long as they provide their own consoles and controllers – out of the ashes of COVID-19 come some beautiful opportunities.
WRITTEN BEFORE THE RECENT SPIKES OF CORONAVIRUS IN VICTORIA. EVERYBODY STAY SAFE, BUT SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES AND INGENUITY WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT.
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