High-quality but sometimes overly rhetorical drama in which a star college football player (Stephan James) and his less-gifted best friend (Alexander Ludwig) launch a strike in the days leading up to the year’s biggest game to force the NCAA to treat student athletes as employees with a right to compensation. As the duo tries to rally both teammates and opponents to their cause, their coach (J. K. Simmons) and a tough corporate attorney (Uzo Aduba), among several others with vested interests, scramble to short-circuit their protest. Working from a script adapted by Adam Mervis from his eponymous play, director Ric Roman Waugh evokes some intense performances and, though overlong, his film has sufficient high-stakes twists and turns to sustain viewer involvement. A study of the dynamics of money and power that riffs on real-life conflicts rather than a traditional sports saga, the movie comes adorned with some scenes of heartfelt prayer. But it’s too heavily larded with vulgar dialogue to be suitable for young people. An adultery theme, drug use, references to homosexuality, frequent profanities, several milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
National Champions
