This Movie is Trash

James Mangold has made a lot of good movies, but even his good movies have flirted with mediocrity

And he's done two "based on real life" movies before this one. I LOVE both of those movies with a passion. But I am also a fan of Johnny Cash and have read Sussana Kaysen's memoir. His movies have almost no basis in reality

Then comes this movie, which is both unrealistic AND bad. It feels like his luck ran out. This movie is pure fantasy; the good guys and the villains are all corny as fuck

Mangold is a writer-director, so the script and the actual scenes have to be analyzed separately in order to be fair to him. The directing is fine, I'd even say it's pretty good. But the writing is garbage. It uses every single cliche in the toolbox of sports movies and feel good dramas. It's just a lazy pastiche of better movies

I could rant about how much I hate this movie for hours, but I'm going to stop myself. You're welcome (reference)