‘80 for Brady’ Review: Four Iconic Leading Ladies Chase Their Super Bowl Fantasies in Soft ’Ball Comedy
Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field play smitten fans bound for the big game in this soft, easy-to-digest comedy that's less about what they do than the joy of doing it together.
By Peter Debruge
Peter Debruge
Chief Film Critic
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A sweet if toothless “Girls Trip” for the “Golden Girls” crowd, “80 for Brady” unites four Hollywood legends — “Grace and Frankie” duo Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda , Rita Moreno and Sally Field — as a real-life gang of octogenarian amigas who road-tripped to the 2017 Super Bowl to cheer on their favorite quarterback, Tom Brady. Selected as the opening-night cork-popper for the Palm Springs International Film Festival (whose diva-worshiping audience reps the two demographics this featherweight offering serves best: gay and gray), Kyle Marvin’s directorial debut is a pleasant enough reminder that these gals are still game for a good time.
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“80 for Brady” may be based on a true story, but it’s presented as pure fantasy: a low-key diversion for these dark and downbeat times. Its four stars are all icons who never stray too far from the personas they’ve created for themselves, though not-yet-80 Field has fun playing a socially awkward, statistics-loving math professor enjoying a bit of time away from her needy husband (Bob Balaban). A vivacious 91, Moreno dances circles around the others, energy-wise — even though the film’s two dance numbers aren’t choreographed or edited to show all that she can do. Fonda’s a hoot as a fan-fiction-writing former “Mayflower Girl” whose beauty-queen background explains the elephant in the room: her work and “what it cost to look like this.”
Mostly, it’s just a pleasure to watch these legends riff off one another, even if the jokes feel oddly patronizing, both to the characters and to its target audience. So many of the comedies Hollywood produces these days feature raunchy “adult” jokes, whereas “80 for Brady” plays it fairly clean. Bizarrely enough, that leaves the PG-13-rated film feeling like a kids movie much of the time, as the women come up with Nickelodeon-level plans to sneak into the stadium (as Billy Porter’s backup dancers) and give Brady the eleventh-hour pep talk he needs. Marvin and DP John Toll (you read that right: two-time Oscar winner John Toll) do a decent job of making it look like the quartet is at the big game, while Brady is a good sport playing both himself and the plastic bobblehead who kicks off the whole show.
Reviewed at Palm Springs Film Festival (opener), Jan. 6, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 98 MIN.
- Production: A Paramount Pictures presentation, in association with Fifth Season, of a Tempesta Films, 199 Prod., Watch This Ready production. Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Tom Brady. Executive producers: Jeff Stott, Mike Covino, Kyle Marvin.
- Crew: Director: Kyle Marvin. Screenplay: Sarah Haskins & Emily Halpern. Camera: John Toll. Editor: Colin Patton. Music: John Debney.
- With: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, Tom Brady, Billy Porter, Rob Corddry, Alex Moffat, Guy Fieri, Harry Hamlin, Bob Balaban, Glynn Turman, Sara Gilbert, Jimmy O. Yang, Ron Funches, Matt Lauria, Sally Kirkland.
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Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, 80 for Brady Is a Wacky Good Time
Here is the ideal way to see the new movie 80 for Brady (in theaters February 3). You should still be wobbly from some kind of sinus something acquired more than a week prior, long ago enough that you have begun to wonder if this condition is maybe something far more sinister. Be approaching a scary milestone birthday, one looming close enough that pretty much any mundane thought can be quickly connected to mortal dread. Be alone in a theater midday, both made cozy and the teensiest bit threatened by all the empty dark surrounding you (much like death might be?). Feel raw about any number of things, from work stress to personal woes and insecurities to the state of a world teetering on the brink of becoming unrecognizable from what you once knew, back when you were young and bright.
Creating those exact conditions might be a tall order, but the point is, Kyle Marvin ’s near-surrealist film—in which a group of elderly women travel to the 2017 Super Bowl to see their idol, Tom Brady , lead the New England Patriots to victory—is best watched with frayed nerves and an open heart. Be vulnerable to what the film is offering, and you might just—hypothetically! I’m not saying this definitely happened to someone this week!—cry four times throughout.
Not that this is a heavy affair. 80 for Brady is mostly a weird lark, following four friends as they go on a wacky adventure to Houston and find new mettle in their twilight years. Lily Tomlin is Lou, the “quarterback” of the quartet and the most die-hard Pats fan among them. She and her pals became invested in the Patriots back when Lou was undergoing cancer treatment, a harrowing time that still haunts her. (Okay, maybe the movie is a little heavy.) Rita Moreno is Maura, who lives in a retirement community that her late husband loved, even though she would be just fine living independently in the house she still owns. Jane Fonda is Trish, a serial dater whose men always let her down; she’s also the author of niche-popular erotica novels (“fan fiction,” she calls it) about Patriots player Rob Gronkowski . Betty, played by Sally Field , is a rigid retired mathematics professor whose husband, played by Bob Balaban , relies on her too much, at the expense of her own autonomy.
These characters are at times vaguely defined and, at others, sharply rendered. Which is far better than if they were simple stock caricatures: the serious one, the floozy, the firecracker, etc. Each actor is able to add her own idiosyncratic shading to this episodic film, a series of rambling set pieces that are consistently amusing if not always ha-ha funny. 80 for Brady is a loosely structured hang movie, albeit one that culminates in a curiously affecting emotional climax. The great hang movies of, say, Richard Linklater sure don’t end like 80 for Brady does. Linklater films also don’t feature Guy Fieri .
Yes, he’s in the movie, popping up to emcee when Betty enters a hot wing eating contest. Later, Betty talks to the amiable Diners, Drive-Ins , and Dives host through the door of a porta-potty. Maura, zonked out on edibles, stumbles into a high-stakes poker game, at first hallucinating that everyone at the table is Mr. Fieri, his head freakishly grafted onto different bodies. (They are actually, among others, Patton Oswalt , Retta , and Billy Porter .) Not all of the movie’s strange moments involve the honorable mayor of Flavortown. In one brief scene, Betty learns the definition of “negging” after watching hotdogging Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy say something mean about brilliant internet comedian (and actor) Brian Jordan Alvarez ’s legs. Porter, playing Lady Gaga ’s halftime show choreographer, does a dance with the girls while a security guard watches on in intense admiration. Lou frequently has visions of Tom Brady speaking to her through Bobbleheads and video screens.
Through all that loopy, arbitrary silliness, something sincere takes hold. We have come to expect the wistful notes of this particular genre: the necessary nods toward the finality of all things, to time either lost or happily used up. Field is spunky as ever—her relative youth means she’s a bit more in touch with contemporary rhythms and vernacular. But it is hard not to watch Moreno—such a lively comedian, still sparking away as ever—and think about her 91 years and how many more might be left. Fonda, bewigged and bedazzled, is still having fun in her late-in-life career resurgence, but a slowness has descended. Ditto Tomlin, saddled with by far the most morose character. There’s an inescapable sorrow to the film, as much as it wants to be—and is!—light and celebratory.
Or maybe that’s just me. It is probably unfair to project my own mortal fears on a movie that, while cognizant of the creep of death, is simply trying to enjoy itself. I should probably meet the movie on its own terms. Which, I suppose, is easy enough, when there is its oddball energy to vibe on, its Dada riffs to ride all the way to a pleasingly sappy conclusion. Despite the Patriots being something of an evil empire in an otherwise troublesome sport, despite Brady maybe not being the best choice for hero worship, 80 for Brady sells the valorization. Not of Brady and the Patriots, exactly, but of anything grand and faraway that might give inspiration, shape, or meaning to the plod and ache and worry of existence. I’m glad these women—who are roughly based on real people—got to have this defining adventure, because why should anyone decent be denied such excitement? And I’m glad there’s 80 for Brady , a movie wise enough to be dumb, and blissfully heedless enough to suggest a party without end.
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’80 for Brady’ Review: Fonda, Field, and Football Make For a Surprisingly Charming Combo
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Every year, or more like several times a year, we'll get a new comedy, marketed to an older audience, starring some of the Hollywood legends of yesteryear. Usually, these movies will have some kind of message about aging gracefully, they usually always feature either Diane Keaton or Jane Fonda (or both) or Morgan Freeman , and a lot of the comedy relies on the characters doing things that most people their age wouldn't do. There's been Book Club , Poms , Last Vegas , The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , 5 Flights Up , and the list goes on and on. Some of these films have even landed sequels and while it may be easy to scoff at them, they have an audience, and oftentimes they're not half bad. Some of them are quite good or at the very least, charming.
80 for Brady is the latest in the said sub-genre and stars Lily Tomlin , Jane Fonda (there she is again), Rita Moreno , and Sally Field as four best friends and die-hard Tom Brady fans, who fly out to Houston, Texas, to see the New England Patriots face the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. It also just so happens to star Brady himself, Guy Fieri , Billy Porter , and Rob Gronkowski , among many others. If that sounds outlandish to you that an Academy Award-winning actress like Sally Field would be sharing the screen with the King of Flavortown in a comedy produced by an NFL Quarterback, well maybe give the movie a shot first.
80 for Brady follows Lou, Trish, Maura, and Betty (Tomlin, Fonda, Moreno, and Field), whose love for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots knows no bounds. Watching Brady play helped Lou through her cancer treatment, Trish has found great success in writing erotica surrounding the Patriots, it helped Maura deal with the loss of her husband, and it has given Betty a release from her loving but workaholic husband ( Bob Balaban ). After entering a sweepstakes, the four friends end up traveling down to Houston to watch the now legendary game which featured the largest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl.
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As silly as 80 for Brady sounds, there's surprisingly a lot to enjoy beyond just the novelty that a film like this exists. The plot is pretty much nonexistent and outside a sub-plot revolving around Lou and her daughter ( Sara Gilbert ), the stakes never feel high, nor should they. The chemistry between the four leading ladies is simply irresistible, and each of them gets a chance to score some major laughs. From Jane Fonda reading aloud Rob Gronkowski fan fiction to a captivated audience of Patriots fans, to Rita Moreno, high as a kite, stumbling into a celebrity poker game and hallucinating Guy Fieri's face everywhere, or Sally Field unintentionally flirting with a man much younger than her, the humor is simple and not the most original, but it's the delivery from the actresses that makes it work. All four women are so gleefully committed to their roles, clearly having the times of their lives, and it's hard not to giggle and smile right along with them.
Much like the recent reboot of House Party , which constantly made comments about just how great its producer LeBron James is, 80 for Brady spends a good amount of time having its main characters talk about just how handsome they find Brady. Though, unlike House Party where it feels like one giant vanity project that wants its audience to laugh with it, not at it, 80 for Brady feels much more in on the joke. While it does certainly feel like one giant commercial for the NFL and Brady himself, it is never taking itself too seriously. Brady's name may be plastered all over the film, but at the same time, a lot of the best jokes have nothing to do with him. There's an abundance of cameos but none of them go as far as to overshadow the four leads and instead let them continue to shine in the spotlight and be the loose cannons that they rarely get to be on-screen.
From a filmmaking and a technical standpoint, there's nothing that truly stands out from 80 for Brady outside Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern 's script. While this is the perfect kind of comedy to see with an active crowd, it also likely wouldn't work nearly as well in an empty theater or watching it at home on TV. It has a certain sitcom or streaming-like feel to it and seems far more interested in letting the award-winning actresses headlining the film carry the film on their shoulders. Haskins and Halpern's writing is paired perfectly with Tomlin, Fonda, Moreno, and Field's sensibilities, and as corny as the film is, the jokes work, and has an enormous heart that it wears proudly. Mixed in with all the shenanigans, the film has a strong emotional core, it's not going to make you leave the theaters in tears, but there is a genuine sweetness to the film.
80 for Brady never once feels mean-spirited, and while you likely already know how the film is going to play out beat-for-beat, it also feels like a warm hug. It's not going to challenge you or make you feel emotionally drained or walk out of the theater feeling like a different person, it's the perfect kind of comedy to take your mom to or go see with your friends after having a few $5 Margaritas at Applebee's. 80 for Brady is not the new golden standard of sports comedies, but it was clearly never trying to be. It's cute, silly, and light, all things that a comfort movie should be. At a little over 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome and has that kind of sincereness that made us fall in love with shows like Ted Lasso and Abbott Elementary . The corniness might become a little bit too overkill for some audience members, but for many others, 80 for Brady will feel like a game well played.
80 for Brady is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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