80 For Brady (2023) – Legendarily Average

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 27th July
Seen: 5th August

A sad truth about Hollywood is that older actresses tend to get nowhere near as many good roles as they deserve. It’s certainly getting better, last year alone had several great legendary older women turning out some great performances and even getting awards love for it but most of them are being relegated to either side characters or underwhelming grandma roles. Fortunately, there is a slowly growing subgenre of films that video essayist Be Kind Rewind has effectively dubbed Book Club films, which tend to include a group of assorted iconic actresses on a simple little adventure. The downside is that these films don’t really give these legendary actresses much to do beyond just hanging out together and getting a cheque – and in the case of 80 for Brady, four icons are relegated to a barely watchable Super Bowl advertisement.

80 for Brady introduces us to a quartet of elderly women, Lou (Lily Tomlin), Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Betty (Sally Field) who all love the Patriots and in particular Tom Brady. They have a regular night together where they watch football and celebrate the glory that is Tom Brady and one year, 2017, Lou gets the idea for them to go to the Super Bowl (Inspired by a feeling that she might possibly have cancer again, though she has not confirmed this when the plan is put in motion) and finds a way to get four tickets for the biggest sports event in history. What ensues is a series of what we can charitably call shenanigans where our four elderly icons are put in a series of allegedly comedic situations and try to make the most out of the material that they’ve been handed.

80 For Brady is nothing more than an excuse to fluff up the egos of a bunch of footballers, in particular Tom Brady who is treated like some form of deity throughout the entire film. Maybe it’s just that this humble reviewer couldn’t give less of a shit about football but seeing four of the greatest actresses in history fawning over these players just feels wrong. It doesn’t help that every time that one of the players is actually asked to try and act it just doesn’t work because they’re not actors, even playing a version of themselves it ends up just being kind of painful to watch. 

Fortunately 80 For Brady has the power of Tomlin, Fonda, Moreno and Field to do the heavy lifting and actually provide some decent performances but what they don’t have is any decent jokes to work with. While the four icons certainly do their best, managing to get a little chuckle out of some of the scenes that have been handed to them there’s just no real memorable zingers or fun moments for them to really sink their teeth into. Sure there are a few moments here and there where you might get something, Sally Field saying “Where’s my strap on” is objectively a funny thing to happen but only because of who Sally Field is in the minds of most viewers. Most jokes in 80 For Brady can’t even rise up to the level of “It’s shocking to hear this actress say this”, leading to everyone on screen trying their hardest with nothing supporting them.

The plot that’s presented here is threadbare with stakes that’re kind of tacked on as more of a hypothetical (AKA a character MIGHT have cancer but she hasn’t looked at the results yet, despite them being on her desk ready to be checked and give the film actual emotional resonance), depriving the actresses of a chance to really dig into something. It’s about as light and toothless as you can get, hoping that the raw charm of the four leading ladies will be enough. Now, obviously, the charm and talent of the four leading ladies is undeniable and they’re the part of this film that makes it watchable… but then again, paint drying is watchable it just doesn’t give much enjoyment. The sad thing is that this is possibly the biggest role these women have had and will have for a while, despite every one of them being among the greatest actresses of all time the best thing they’ve got is a film where they worship a guy who can throw a ball.

80 For Brady isn’t funny enough to be interesting to anyone who isn’t obsessed about the game that it revolves around and even if you are obsessive about the game, there’s barely enough Football in here to satisfy that. At best you get to see four actresses who are so much better than this still doing it better than anyone else, maybe even enjoy Sally Field saying “Strap on” and get a juvenile giggle out of that. Other than that, it’s just a nothing film that only helps stroke one man’s ego and it isn’t even interesting while it does that.