We are finally just a few hours away from the biggest day in American entertainment. For several months, millions of people across the country have been hyping themselves after closely following the career of their favorite players. They hold watch parties every week; they tracked online stats; they put thousands of dollars worth of bets. And it all comes down to one inescapable, monolithic event in February: the theatrical release of 80 for Brady.
If you thought for a second that I might be talking about the Super Bowl, you haven’t been paying attention (or, anyway, you came here without reading the headline). This year, the biggest day in sports is being overshadowed by the biggest weekend in cinema. Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, and Lily Tomlin will be hitting the theaters this weekend for a performance that’s more entertaining than anything Rihanna’s “mic” will “pick up” on Sunday.
Vanity of 80 for Brady It’s like one of those inevitable pop-up ads with a clickbaity (yet vague) title designed to attract internet users who can see it. “Four Grandmothers Go to the Super Bowl, What Happens Next Will Warm Your Heart.” Except that, in case 80 for Brady, no virus will be downloaded directly to your hard drive for your curiosity. This is a fantasy world where we get everything that we were promised, rewarded for having a heart big enough to want four beloved elderly people to have the time of their lives.
It may seem like a simple time in the movie, but it really is 80 for Brady offers: a dose of simple, sprightly fun.
80 for Brady opens by introducing us to four best friends, each in their late seventies or early eighties. Lou (Tomlin), Trish (Fonda), Maura (Moreno), and Betty (Field) have gathered at Lou’s house every Sunday during football season to watch their beloved New England Patriots play.
The tradition started as an accident the year before when the girls all helped take care of Lou after his final round of chemotherapy. A dead remote battery forces them to put the landing channel football game on hold, until they are all so enamored with the hunky Tom Brady that they start to look away from the hobby and enter the sport.
Four best friends, who have named their group “80 for Brady Club,” have spent so many games together that they have even developed their own superstition. Trish should stand on the stairs at kickoff; Lou must spill the bowl of chips; Maura needed to drink some tea.
Photo by Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures
Their eccentricities have strengthened their bond over the years, and when the Patriots made it to the 2017 Super Bowl, Lou decided that it was time for them to take their love of the game to the next level in a personal way. While the real group of loyal friends that the film is based on has never made it to the biggest game of football, the film gives them a spectacular imagining of their wildest dreams.
It proved trickier than expected, of course. Super Bowl tickets do not come cheap. Each woman comes up with her own plan to try to win a ticket through a local radio contest, but Lou is more motivated to get her hands on it. She bought her own ticket, letting her friends believe that they won the contest. But getting from Massachusetts to Texas for the game is a challenge in itself. Maura has to be kicked out of the retirement home she left after her husband died, while Betty has to draw some clear boundaries with her loving but needy husband.
All that is just a roller coaster climbing up, ready to go down to ride the thrill of twisty fun once 80 for the club Brady wins on the road. While avoiding taking too many risks, 80 for Brady Hope is much more reliable than disappointing.
The script has a lot of jokes that are just too close, like Trish’s penchant for writing Rob Gronkowski fan fiction. In a very funny moment for Field, Betty urges another woman in the group to call the fanny pack where she keeps her Super Bowl tickets “rope-on”. He insists that wearing it on his shoulder changes his name, because having a “strap-on” is more responsible than anything close to his fanny.
Photo by Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures
Every actor in the 80 for Brady freely play their own version. The character of the field is dependable and headstrong; Moreno’s is fabulous and feisty; Fonda is sexy and commanding; and Tomlin is cantankerous but sweet. This movie isn’t complicated for this actress by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t have to be. 80 for Brady feeling like it happened only to be left in reality is one of the ultimate comforts. There is not an ounce of work to be done by his audience; This is real sit-back-and-relax fare.
But, for a fairly simple film, there sure is a lot going on 80 for Brady to fill all his 98 minutes. Cameos and familiar faces keep the film’s pacing as consistent as a fully charged Jazzy Scooter. Guy Fieri makes a pilgrimage from Flavortown to celebrate the film with his presence, helping our heroes get from point A to point B in several cases, while also providing a pleasant presence for Maura when she accidentally overindulges in cannabis candy in Fieri’s luxury. Super Bowl party.
There’s also Harry Hamlin and Billy Porter, who play two fictional proxies of their real-life personas, only there to help 80 for Brady’s club reach its ultimate goal: prime seats in the biggest game of the year.
But it was Moreno, Fonda, Tomlin, and Field that infused 80 for Brady with its eternal charm. Each of them is such a playable game that they turn the movie into its own unmissable sporting event—for those of us who like to help mother cinema even more carefully than the eight-layer Super Bowl party dip. . Each actress is so committed, so down to take the silliest slapstick jokes all the way to their fullest potential. These are true MVPs (Most Vivacious Pensioners).
80 for Brady smart enough to know that no one paying money to see it in a theater is going to take it too seriously. Even his most sincere moments are pretty ephemeral, always falling back on the strength of the good friendship of his core club instead of being too weepy or saccharine.
Photo by Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures
This makes some uproariously conspicuous acting efforts from Tom Brady, who tries his best to convey even an ounce of emotion from his soulless lizard eyes, while all four of the main cast members can swing it with a split second look. As if there weren’t enough reasons to see this movie in theaters, I don’t know that I—or the audience I was with—have laughed harder in 2023 than when Brady gave Tomlin an emotional speech at the end of the film. film.
Luckily, it’s easy to forget 80 for Brady There as an egotistical vanity project for its titular producer. Ebullient comedy and dedicated performances help the film transcend any errant narcissism and instead settle it nicely into the pantheon of wacky street comedies.
Why at home anyone would want to spend a Sunday afternoon in February in front of the television watching a football game—when they could be watching this movie—is beyond me. Who cares what team wins the Super Bowl? 80 for Brady is a sure win where no one loses and everyone goes home a winner.
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