Pickleball

Jeff Hamm’s Pickleball is an undeniably entertaining, though flawed and slightly old-fashioned, new feature-length comedy written by Jay Dee Walters and Justin Chaffee; starring Kevin Farley, Willie Mellina and Justin Sterner. The film takes place in a community centre where the sport of Pickleball is frequently the main attraction. After the boss of this establishment suffers a sudden and fatal heart-attack while playing the sport, it’s revealed that his frivolous spending on his girlfriend has resulted in the community centre’s financial decline. Upon returning as a wise-cracking ghost to his old priest friend (played by Farley), he insists that it’s up to his two sons to save the community centre - but the two must heal some old wounds and come to terms with one another’s polar opposite personalities if they are to succeed.  It all comes down to an all-important Pickleball showdown that could rescue the space from going under.

Pickleball is an absurdist comedy, through and through, yet with the occasional dramatic element sprinkled in to give the characters some grounding. The tone, overall, is slightly conflicting. For a film which is nearing two hours in length, the comedy aspect is certainly put to the test. As is the nature of any comedy, some of the jokes land and some just don’t. Its most successful instances of humour come from the heightened and fantastical scenarios –such as in the ghost of the dead manager and his flippant attitude towards being dead. On the other hand, the jokes fail when they attempt to be about current culture or modernity; bits about superficial, social-media obsessed people or gamers. These come across as awkward and clunky. In terms of the drama, there’s one superb element: the relationship between the two brothers and how it slowly develops across the movie. What begins as constant ridicule slowly turns to reflection, and for a piece so packed with jokes, their dynamic feels surprisingly natural, sincere and – in some moments – quite sad.

Think what you will of the story, its characters; the humour and the runtime; but one area you can’t knock is the technical. This is an expertly photographed piece. Shot almost entirely on anamorphic lenses and defined – in great part – by dolly shots instead of handheld or Steadicam, this is deceptively slick visual work with almost no dips in quality. This critic’s one reservation is the colour-grading which, as expertly done as it is, veers into ultra-saturated territory slightly too often. But even this is purely a matter of taste and not a genuine complaint. It’s the lighting, though, which elevates all these aspects and makes this a high-end, polished product. With a superb use of balance and bounce, the entire aesthetic is made to feel glistening and cozy. The audio is also perfect in an unshowy, natural yet clearly-captured sort of way – a good example of a job being done right when you fail to notice it.

To conclude, this critic enjoyed his viewing of Pickleball. For any faults on a script, tone and duration level, far far more positives can be identified in the craft and design of this farcical comedy.