#Meaghan Witri

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The Winning Season (2009) Jim Strouse

January 28th 2024

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Rooney Mara (as Wendy #14) Emma Roberts (as Abbie #10) Shareeka Epps (as Lisa #3) Meaghan Witri (as Tamra / Tam-Tam #50) Sam Rockwell (as Bill) From the sports-comedy, THE WINNING SEASON (2009)

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #363: The Winning Season (2009) - dir. James C. Strouse

As a run-up to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (which I hope to see later this week), I decided to watch the comedy The Winning Season, which stars Three Billboards’ Sam Rockwell (one of my favorite actors, incidentally). Rockwell plays Bill Greaves, a a small-town misfit who was once a high school basketball athlete, now stuck in a rut as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. Pitied by his ex-wife Stacey (Jessica Hecht) and often hated by his teenage daughter Molly (Shana Dowdeswell, who tragically died a few years ago), Bill sees an opportunity to turn his life around when he is hired as the new coach for a local high school’s girls’ basketball team.

Bill constantly butts heads with the determined young women on the team - Abby (Emma Roberts), Tamra (Meaghan Witri), Lisa (Shareeka Epps), Wendy (Rooney Mara), Kathy (Emily Rios) and Mindy (Melanie Hinkle) - as well as the school’s principal, Terry (Rob Corddry), who got Bill the coaching job and who is also Tamra’s father. Hard drinking and a tendency to be tough on other people makes Bill pretty hard to like, but as the story progresses we see that he means well and he grows to genuinely care for the young women who work with him. Even after a DUI puts him in hot water with the school administration, Bill stops at nothing to support his team, leading to a heartwarming finale at the state tournament finals.

As in most “inspiring” sports films, just about everything that happens in The Winning Season is predictable, but that doesn’t stop the film from being entertaining and uplifting. Sam Rockwell is the perfect performer for the central role, ideal for bringing out both the most irritating and the most endearing aspects of the character. The supporting roles are also well-cast, particularly Margo Martindale as Donna, an affable bus driver whom Rockwell recruits to be his assistant coach. Donna encourages the members of the varsity team to feel comfortable in their own skin and to support each other through teamwork, friendship and understanding, principles that Bill also uses to learn and grow in his own life.

[oppaiokudasai]

Insomnia File #25: The Winning Season (dir by James C. Strouse)

Insomnia File #25: The Winning Season (dir by James C. Strouse)

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries! If, last night, you were up at 11:45 then … well, you were probably like most people.  To be…

[jennyroh]

Winning Season (2009) ❤ Director: James C. Strouse

You're probably wondering why there's a picture of a girls basketball team... but it's actually from the movie. I love this shot because they all look like normal high school girls posing for their yearbook moment and Sam Rockwell actually looks like a normal basketball coach minus the mustache. And by normal I mean the girls aren't all prettied up nor do they look like actresses who are just wearing basketball uniforms for a movie. And I just realized prettied doesn't have a red line under it. I thought it was going to be just another stupid word I made up, but I guess not! Anyway, the story follows Bill Greaves (Sam Rockwell), who is an alcoholic misfit that hates his job as a busboy but does it anyway because again, he's an alcoholic misfit. All until his old buddy Terry (Rob Corddry) shows up and offers him a job to coach the Varsity Girls Basketball team at the school he's recently became a principal for. Bill ends up taking it without too much thought, but starts out trying to ditch it once he finds out it was a team of girls. Terry convinces him to just stay and it's from there that a very sweet relationship grows between everyone on the team and Bill himself. Through helping his addiction to drinking, making him feel that he's worthier than he thinks of himself, and putting his life back together in general. Bill also reciprocates their generosity by giving off the most genuine kind of competitiveness for their game season, steering them away from older men that is clearly targeting younger girls for a "good" time, and other sweet little concerns and considerations. I loved Emma Roberts and I especially am loving Rooney Mara a lot more now! Mainly because it's always nice to see someone out of their usual roles. She's becoming one of my favorites and now I'm really looking forward to her in Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I think I will stop here now... I blabbed too much.

[spiderliliez]

Rooney Mara (as Wendy) Emma Roberts (as Abbie) Meaghan Witri (as Tamra / Tam-Tam) The funny side of Rooney Mara. From the sports comedy movie, THE WINNING SEASON (2009)