Affleck.

What is it, fans?

Welcome back.

My challenge Back.

Brand New Gavin O'Connor Film The Way Back, starring Ben Affleck.

I Need You, the Comets down below.

Where you excited for this?

Are you a Gavin O'Connor fan and let's get right into it.

So this film centers around Jack Cunningham, who was a high school basketball phenom who walked away from the game for fitting his future.

Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he may get one last shot at redemption.

I love when he portrays this level of emotion on screen.

We haven't seen it too many times before, but when we've seen it, it has worked.

And this movie can on Lee work if one Gavin O'Connor brings what we have seen from him before.

He's in my opinion, one of the most underrated filmmakers working today from the accountant, which I really enjoyed too loved Ah, and then obviously warrior, one of my favorite movies of all time.

Therefore, this film was very high on my most anticipated list this year, and then, obviously, Ben Affleck has to work.

He has to bring it here.

And let's start there with his performance.

It is in my opinion, and it may be too soon to say this.

I think it's his best performance ever.

I'm not kidding.

Now.

We don't know what's coming.

We say this every single year.

Very early on were like, Ah, this person's a shoo in for best actor best director This and that.

Ah, and the rest of this film, While I thoroughly enjoyed myself and we'll get into it, I don't think it has a shot in any category for the Oscars.

But Ben Affleck just remember the name.

Remember the character?

Remember the movie?

Because this is, I think, his best performance ever.

And the film works because of the way that he portrays this emotion.

The film works because of how you understand he has suffered, even though you may not understand why, at the beginning of the film as we go, we answer these questions and I love the way the screenplay was laid out.

It doesn't vomit everything on screen in the 1st 5 minutes.

It doesn't tell you.

Okay, here's why you have to fuel for this character, and we understand he is obviously an alcoholic.

He is, Ah, digging himself into a hole, and we think we know why at first.

But as we progress, we learn more.

But it isn't spouted out through exposition.

We get very subtle details within the script.

And even though basketball is kind of the backdrop here, it's not the focus.

Now I will say there is a portion within the movie about a 15 20 minute span where we almost forget what Affleck is going through.

And at first that really bothered me.

I walked out of the theater going.

I wish we would have had some just interlaced within the basketball scenes.

And I love the connection with the team.

I love the fact that we're building on these relationships, one in particulary with one player that I really enjoyed.

And there's a moment where we start to understand that his father hasn't necessarily been as supportive as maybe even Affleck's character in this movie, but to focus on that as much as they did and not necessarily hit on the big issue that we're dealing with for so long.

A worried me at first, but then I thought about it and I said to myself, You know, that's life.

I mean, we have these moments of happiness.

We have these spurts within our lifes that bring joy to us.

Ah, and we think things were going well.

And then all of a sudden, something happens.

Things start to go in the opposite direction, and it feels like our life just continue to fall apart.

And this movie does not tip toe around at all.

Ah, that Ben Affleck is going through something that a lot of people deal with in real life.

People that I know personally have dealt with this issue, and I know there are so many that are going to be able to relate to this story personally, and that's why it's so important.

This is a film that easily could have fallen flat.

But do you have a brilliant director in Gavin O'Connor?

And he brings the exact same style that we know from Warrior?

All right, nothing has changed in a major way, but it's the subtlety of the entire movie, Whether it's a small conversation with someone very important in his life, it could be a sister.

It could be his little nephew, and I love those moments that bring us around to where we end up at the end of this film.

In this movie pulls no punches.

It doesn't even necessarily end in a way that a lot of people are going to anticipate now.

Speaking of anticipation, there is obviously going to be a bit of predictability within this movie.

Ah, you're going to follow a few of those tropes when it comes to Ah, Basketball, a sports, ah, teamwork centric movie.

Because even though this movie is dealing with Jax passed and dealing with Jax, Demons were also dealing with this basketball team and the fact that he wants to win.

And he has that mentality from when he played.

But he had to cut off that portion of his life for one particular reason.

That you learn in the movie, and as someone who played basketball in high school, I was focusing on the detail.

I was focusing on how they went about filming the basketball scenes and the action in this kind of film, and it's all really well done.

I mean, in a movie like this, especially, you can tell when the basketball scenes are not authentic and not even focusing on the film style just the way that the players are moving and can they actually play?

But they can, uh, the basketball games felt very realistic, and then you get into the sound design and the camera movements in the way that they betray certain elements.

And, yes, some of those moments are a bit predictable, and it does follow the particulate beats that you expect from a store like this to a point.

And then it starts to go its own path.

And that's when the movie really hit me hard.

And at the end of the day, even though there was a bit of both, there were some conventions followed, but then broke away from the formula and really homed in on the character of Jack and focused on what was so important to his character on where he was in his life.

If I had a major critique, it wouldn't necessarily be the end of the movie, but I will say I wanted, you know, I don't even know what I wanted from the end.

I'll just say it caught me off guard and I'm not all there on it just yet.

I need some time to sit and think and maybe even go back and see it again.

But that's the thing.

Even though this movie is emotional, it's a gut punch.

It's really sad.

People in the theater will be sobbing at times.

I am willing to go watch this again because the filmmaking was just wonderful and Ben Affleck's performance Oh my goodness.

And it could be the fact that this is just my kind of movie, man.

It's honest.

It's true to itself.

I love this performance by Ben Affleck.

The direction is fantastic.

I'm a big basketball guy, a big sports fan.

It doesn't take much to get me motivated in movies like this, but I definitely got motivated.

It worked for what it was going for, and I hope you guys enjoy this review.

I hope you enjoy this movie.

Be sure to leave this video a thumbs up.

If you like these reviews, I'm going in 83% for the way back, one of my favorite movies of the year.

I need to see it again just to be sure of that ending, and if I'm sure of it, then my score could raise eventually.

Be sure to follow me on letter box to keep up with those things, but yeah, What a film.

Gavin O'Connor just keeps on doing it.

Do not forget Ben Affleck, You guys the best.

I'll see you soon.