Anna Daniels
This is one of the smallest movies you’ve never heard of stacked with a bunch of talent you recognize: Fred Willard, of course, stars as the president of a girls’ softball association, John Carson. The cast, however, also includes Richard Kind, John Goodman, and Angela Kinsey, just to name the most famous few. All-Stars is a sports comedy centered around girls’ softball, but this isn’t A League of Their Own – think something more akin to every human character, their neurotic relationships, and their obsession with their championship dogs in Best In Show, which Kinsey openly describes as one of his two all-time favorite films (paired incongruously with The Godfather). “Anybody who has ever had anything to do with youth sports, or any youth activities for that matter, will recognize the characters in All-Stars,” Kinsey explained in an interview with The Cleveland Movie Blog. “I have known every character in the film through my coaching years. People frequently say that comedy takes reality and then exaggerates it, but there is honestly very little exaggeration when it comes to these characters.” It’s not so much about the girls trying to have fun playing softball as it is their wacky parents’ delusional in their belief that their fourth-grade kid is the next NCAA College World Series teammate.
While this indie movie is so indie that it doesn’t have a Rotten Tomatoes score, various reviews from viewers across the Internet are relatively glowing, often citing the stellar comedic cast and, for those who have participated in youth sports, also praising the (if you’ll forgive the pun) pitch-perfect depiction of nutty parents’ neurotic behavior. In a particularly stunning bit of prescience, just days before Willard’s death, The Gazette of Iowa actually put All-Stars on a personal top 15 list of sports movies. At a cozy 97 minutes, it’ll breeze right on by in-between Mascots and Roxanne on your celebration-of-life film binge.
Written by: Looper
