The Long Game (2023)

The Long Game plays the underdog sports movie straight down the fairway, no surprises, and it still gets you on the final hole. It’s 1956 in Del Rio, Texas. Jay Hernandez plays JB Peña, an ex-Marine who just became school superintendent, and the town’s country club turns him away for being Mexican American. Then a teenage caddie named Joe Treviño puts a golf ball through JB’s car window, and JB finds a crew of caddies who can really play. Forget the window, he tells them, if you’ll form a team. Dennis Quaid, JB’s old Marine buddy, signs on to coach. The racism the boys face, at tournaments and at a diner that refuses them, is shown plainly. The formula is the problem: the rich-kid rival, the coaches arguing about the rules, the rainy final round, all present and accounted for. It holds an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 6.6 because a true story this good carries a very familiar script. $597 says you head to a driving range this week and announce you’re forming a team before your first swing.

What works: The true story is genuinely stirring, and the film’s big heart wins out over its familiar formula.

What doesn’t: It hits every underdog sports movie beat right on schedule, so very little in the final stretch comes as a surprise.

Who it’s for: Families who love a true underdog story, and golfers who want a sports movie that isn’t about football.