Stick, review: Owen Wilson's new golf comedy is par for the course
When Wilson's washed-up ex-pro Pryce Cahill spots skinny teen Santi (Peter Dager) whistling balls into the stratosphere at a driving range, we see what he sees: a phenom with a swing that has stardom etched into the swing of its sweet hips. Game on as Pryce takes Santi, reluctant at first, under his rusty wing.
So the sport part of this underdog story had me rooting for it. If only the plot had as firm a grip on what it was aiming for as Santi loading up his three wood. Because when it comes to the sporting underdog schtick, Stick sticks to the middle of the fairway, playing it safe when a few tin cup chances would have lifted it out of the pack.
As Pryce takes Santi out on the road in a bid to turn him into a top pro, our cards are marked pretty quickly. Personal tragedy, the death of a young son, has sent Pryce on a downward spiral, wrecking his career and his marriage. Santi is his lifeline, a son substitute who also reminds him of the player he used to be.
The loafer charm of Wilson makes a good match with Dager's finely tuned turn as a cocky teen whose bravado masks insecurity. But we only scratch the surface of their relationship as Stick swings uneasily between comedy and drama, not really teeing off convincingly as either.
'Yeah, at one point in my life, I was somebody,' notes Pryce to Santi as the pair head out on the biggest round of the young prodigy's career, only to meet fans who recall the old pro in his pomp. It's a line that hints at something deeper hidden beneath Pryce's genial surface, but it's left to drift off into the rough.
Still, if you go with Stick's laid back flow, there's plenty to enjoy. While the plot twists aren't so much signposted as written in capital letters on the scoreboard by the 18th green, there's something comforting in knowing exactly where the action is heading.
Will Pryce get his life back on track? Will Santi's mum hit it off with Pryce's old caddy Mitts? Will Santi's domineering dad turn up and wreck his chances like he did in the juniors? Will we be teed up for a second series in which Pryce finally gets his head back in the game? You know the answers already.
It's all perfectly watchable but, like following an actual golf tournament on TV, if you nod off during the second round only waking up for the closing holes, you won't have missed too much. As sports comedies go, Stick is pretty much par for the course.
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The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
The shocking hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe
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Benesch, who trained at London's Guildhall School of Music & Drama, said she spent several shifts trailing real nurses at a Swiss hospital to learn the 'choreography' of interactions between staff and patients, and the manual skills of prepping a syringe or taking blood pressure. 'I wanted real nurses not to be able to tell the difference between me and a professional,' she says. 'I just hope people aren't scared off by a film with subtitles because the story is absolutely universal.' Late Shift has stoked heated policy reform debates and proved a critical and box office success in German-speaking Europe, even besting the latest Bridget Jones movie in Swiss cinemas. At the world premiere at the Berlin film festival in February, several nurses were invited to appear in their uniforms on the red carpet and take the stage after the screening for a round of applause. Days before Germany's general election, some held #wirsindfloria (We Are Floria) signs. One of those guests was Ingo Böing, 47, who worked in hospitals for a quarter century and is now on staff at the German Association of Nursing Professionals, which lobbies for better conditions for care workers. 'It was incredibly moving,' he says of the film gala. 'Watching several of the scenes I thought 'Wow, that's really how it is.'' Böing says Late Shift did a convincing job depicting the 'vicious circle' of nursing, in which people working at the absolute limits of their strength call in sick at short notice, leaving those who show up for duty with an even more daunting task. 'It's that feeling of trying to meet so many needs at once and not managing,' he adds. He says waiting lists like those used by the NHS in Britain, although frustrating for patients, would help hospitals in Germany better prioritise while keeping medical staff from getting overstretched. 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'You see a great cruelty in all these measures,' she says. 'Elon Musk said he saw empathy as the biggest problem of our time which is of course completely monstrous. The least an artist can do is to push back against that. Sooner or later we're all going to be dependent on that person standing by the bed.' Late Shift will be released in the UK and Ireland on 1 August
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
TV's best (and worst) historical epics: from Wolf Hall to I, Claudius:
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But still, 50 years on, the BBC's adaptation of Robert Graves' novels on the bastardry of the early Roman empire remains one of TV's finest achievements, with an unapologetically adult script and magnificent, pillar-rattling performances from John Hurt, Siân Phillips and Derek Jacobi, the last assisted by prosthetic makeup and a false nose that could dislodge the cobwebs from a triumphal arch. An object lesson, here, in how to deliver prestige historical drama without recourse to bums or bombast. Instead, there are exquisitely layered performances (Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce), quiet, adult explorations of difficult, adult things (grief, ageing) and many, many candlelit silences into which Mark Rylance's Thomas Cromwell glides, his expression, as always, that of a ferret saddened by developments in France. A monumental achievement, obviously, and in director Peter Kosminksy and scriptwriter Peter Straughan's hands, a near-perfect adaptation of Hilary Mantel's three-piece masterpiece. 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And lo, much adolescent tomfoolery doth ensue, with PG-rated punch-ups, tiresome hunks smirking in pleather and dialogue of the 'Things just got complicated!' genus. The result? Hollycloaks. Peter Capaldi does his best as Cardinal Richelieu but it would take more than thigh boots and nostril-flaring to lighten this particular load. Verily, my liege, this idiot Canadian-Irish co-production does dance a merry jig upon the very concept of historical accuracy, with its Irish Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), its ripped courtiers and Joss Stone as Anne of Cleves. There is the occasional grudging nod to Actual Historical Stuff (the Reformation, wives etc). But it's mostly just Henry banging his way around Tudor England, his bum cheeks jack-hammering with such ferocity that they are little more than a meaty blur, like a deli counter viewed from the top deck of a speeding bus in the rain. Chief of War is on Apple TV+ from 1 August.
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
D-backs (and Tigers) await news on Eugenio Suarez's hand
July 29 - There was plenty of drama during the first game of the Arizona-Detroit series on Monday night, though it had little to do with the outcome. The Tigers and Diamondbacks will play the second game of the three-game series on Tuesday evening in Detroit. The Diamondbacks and the many trade suitors for Eugenio Suarez got a huge scare in the ninth inning when the slugging third baseman was hit in the hand by a Will Vest pitch. Suarez said afterward that X-rays on his index finger were negative. He planned to have more tests on Tuesday. "Right now, it's painful, obviously. The good news is the X-ray was negative," he said postgame. "We'll see (Tuesday) what else they're going to do. Right now, I will do my best to try to be back soon." The Tigers are one of many teams reportedly interested in the services of Suarez, who is among the top five in the majors with 36 homers. Detroit won the series opener 5-1 and will seek a third straight victory following a six-game slide. The Tigers' roster is in flux. Outfielder Kerry Carpenter was activated from the injured list on Sunday. The team learned on Monday that starting pitcher Reese Olson would miss at least the remainder of the regular season with a shoulder injury, so the Tigers acquired Chris Paddack from the Minnesota Twins to replace him. Detroit also placed outfielder Parker Meadows on the IL with a quad issue. Andy Ibanez, who was recalled from Triple-A Toledo, gave the offense a spark with a double and solo homer Monday night. "I told (Ibanez) before the game, don't try to make up for lost time in one game," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "So if that's his way of just settling in -- bam, double, homer. I know it means a lot to him. It crushed him to be sent down. But he went down, did his work and waited for the next opportunity." American League All-Star Casey Mize (9-4, 3.40 ERA), who is scheduled to start for the Tigers on Tuesday, has gotten roughed up in his past two starts. The right-hander allowed six runs in three innings to the Seattle Mariners just before the break, then yielded five runs (four earned) and 10 hits in four innings at Pittsburgh last Tuesday in an 8-5 loss. "I just look at myself and what I can do better," Mize said. "I think the role of the starting pitcher is so important, just setting the tone for the game and not having those guys on the field for too long." Mize, who will face the Diamondbacks for the first time, originally was scheduled to pitch on Monday. He was given an extra day of rest after experiencing some minor knee tightness. Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (10-6, 4.76 ERA), Mize's mound opponent, has delivered three straight solid starts. He held the San Diego Padres to two runs in eight innings on July 9. In his first outing after the All-Star break, Pfaadt tossed seven scoreless innings against St. Louis. In his latest start, he was charged with two runs in 5 1/3 innings in his team's 4-3 loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday. Pfaadt didn't give up a run in the first five innings but was pulled shortly after allowing back-to-back doubles in the sixth. "Ran into some trouble in the sixth, and (it) came back to bite us," said Pfaadt, who will face the Tigers for the first time in his career. "That's what's most disappointing." --Field Level Media
