Silver Linings Playbook: At Least The Suffering of Eagles Fans Makes Great Art

Philadelphia native Zach Baron says the new movie, Silver Linings Playbook, about a family of tortured Philadelphia Eagles fans, is “the best sports movie in years.” Baron writes: “The film is set in 2008, and in one scene, (Robert) De Niro’s Pat Sr., devastated in the aftermath of a loss to the Giants and despairing of his erratic son, begins yelling at (Bradley) Cooper’s character, telling him he’s dropping the ball on his life like DeSean Jackson dropped the ball at the 1-yard line — the end zone loomed wide open for both, and neither could find a way in. The comparison tells you everything you need to know about this family and the younger Pat’s failure to be a good member of it. It also tells you a lot about certain kinds of fathers and sons, how they talk to each other, the way in which invoking Jackson is a safe way of invoking something that’s dark and otherwise hard to say out loud. If there’s been a better representation of the complicated but very real overlap between the football field and the city full of people that surrounds it, I haven’t seen it.” Fine. But there are good movies where teams when the championship at the end, too. Those are good, right? [Grantland]