The Winning Season Reviews

Doesn't win points for originality, but the film keeps to a steady rhythm of entertainment, delivering a few laughs and tears along the way on DVD before it settles into its rightful home on basic cable.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Sam Rockwell's never-ending ability to create intriguing characters proves essential to writer/director James C. Strouse, whose formulaic tale of redemption for a washed up basketball coach would otherwise be instantly forgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Quirky indie sports flick is surprisingly serious, moving.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

I want you to see this movie On Demand to witness the most underrated actor in all of the world, Sam Rockwell. That way, he won't have to make another movie like this ever again.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

In its final lap The Winning Season collapses into a sentimental farce that even Mr. Rockwell, now playing the clown, cannot redeem from cringe-inducing hokum.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

"The Winning Season" teeters hither and thither on its tonal seesaw, never quite sure where its going and often forgetful of where it's been.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Rockwell charms us into giving the film the benefit of our many doubts.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Rockwell does a typically fine job -- he's funny, touching and appalling -- as an alcoholic mess of a former high school basketball coach who's been reduced to washing dishes in a restaurant.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The story deepens through the clownish, heartbreaking exertions of Rockwell's gruff misfit, still working things out at the final buzzer.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A shaggy underdog worth seeking out, primarily for [Sam] Rockwell's sensational performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

A predictable and cliched dramady.

Full Review

Forget AA; according to the movies, there's no better cure for alcoholism or depression than good ol' precollegiate athletic coaching.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A mildly entertaining sports flick about a girl's basketball team and a chauvinistic coach who knows a lot about the game.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The Winning Season respects its misfits (and its audience) by not stripping away their foibles in the service of sports-movie clichés.

Full Review

Aims for both the heatstring-tugging power of sports classics like Hoosiers and the kind of gritty indie drama you might normally see Rockwell in, but falls well short of both.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A film that feels fresh and insightful in a generally pretty played out genre.

Full Review

Considering its status as merely a puddle of regurgitated elements, The Winning Season is, to be as coarse as its protagonist, the cinematic equivalent of vomit.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

A welcome surprise...Rockwell gives a performance that's always funny, never sentimental...this one is worth finding.

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As the film progresses, its identity crisis becomes increasingly evident as standard indie tropes are interrupted by cackhanded attempts at comedy of the broadest type.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Transporting The Bad News Bears into the world of high school girls basketball, The Winning Season is likable and diverting even if it's pretty familiar.

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