intramural

Every year at the Tribeca Film Festival, a film will debut that comes seemingly out of nowhere and takes critics and audiences completely by surprise.  Last year, it was the genre-blending Israeli thriller Big Bad Wolves.  This year, it’s director Andrew Disney’s hilarious sports movies send-up Intramural.

The film tells the tale of the Panthers, an intramural college football team led by heroic captain Caleb (Jake Lacy).  When one of their best players becomes paralyzed “from the nutsack down” in a championship game, the team disbands, swearing off intramural football forever.  Some years later, Caleb is a fourth year senior in college, studying to be a lawyer, when he is lured back to the sport.  After putting a new team together to settle a score against Dick Downs (Beck Bennett) and the borderline insane Titans, Caleb finds solace in accepting that there are some things in life worth fighting for.

Typically, films like these are reserved to the bargain DVD bin at your local retailer, doomed to obscurity because of their lack of substance or logic.  Intramural, fortunately, offers too much greatness to be written off as just another spoof movie.  The jokes oscillate between subtle, crude, and obvious winks (insomuch as the characters actually breakdown why things are transpiring the way they are) to sports films of the moment and the past.  This is not a new phenomenon, but remarkably it’s used to greater effect here.  Somehow, the fact that the characters contained within the film are complicit in the scheme adds a clever spin.

Director Andrew Disney seems to be a student of slapstick comedy.  The tone and style of the film place it well above some of the less desired spoof films (such as anything from directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer), and on par with some of the genre’s smarter entries like David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer.  Mind you, there are a few moments where the jokes take a hard left turn – not least of which includes the literal performance of a crude metaphor involving one of the characters literally defecating on the ceiling. The real treat with this film – as has been the case with most of the festival’s films this year – is the expertly cast actors who inhabit its space.

Any great comedy needs a great straight man, and rising star Jake Lacy fills that role here perfectly as the film’s lead character Caleb.  Caleb will always do the right thing, regardless of his own personal satisfaction.  Obviously, this is motivated by the fact that every sports film features a selfless protagonist who sacrifices himself for the good of the team.  In turn, we are witness to some truly cringe-worthy moments of aw-shucks altruism.  Kate McKinnon, who is enjoying a great run on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, is also a treat as the clingy, insufferable wife-to-be who, naturally, wants Caleb all to herself so she can mould him into the husband she hopes he’ll become.  McKinnon is terrific, and paired with her role in another festival hit (Life Partners), she’s establishing herself as a great character actress.

The real show-stealer here is another SNL alumni, Beck Bennett, as the obnoxious villain Dick Downs.  Really, it almost feels as if this movie was written as a showcase for Bennett’s ability to play man-child antagonists with an eerily spectacular flair.  He’s a narcissist, possible racist, maybe gay, extremely homophobic, and just all-around offensive chauvinist that rivals even the worst of the worst that the genre has to offer.  His dialogue is filled with colorful threats like “I’m going to rip out your colon and wear it like a spooky eyepatch.”  He’s the nucleus of the movie’s great wit, and as such, the movie is that much better for having him in it.

In the end, Intramural is a satisfying homage to the great sports films in cinematic history.  It may not be remembered as a classic today, tomorrow, or even next year, but is destined for cult status at some point down the line.  As such, if you’re looking for some cheap laughs, fun characters, and a good time, Intramural will do the trick.

[Rating:3/5]