By Jennifer Asencio
| Published 24 seconds ago

There are some critics out there who can’t seem to get over the fact that Daily Wire+ makes its own content. They have gone so out of their way to ignore the recent series The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin that there is still, as of this writing, no Rotten Tomatoes score for it from critics. It’s a fact that has been thrown in everyone’s faces to poison the well against this incredible King Arthur epic.

Ignoring all of the other content Daily Wire+ produces, including the magnificent Run Hide Fight and slow-burnWestern thriller Terror on the Prairie, any coverage of Daily Wire+ content focuses on one movie: Lady Ballers. This absurdist comedy was written and directed by Jeremy Boreing and features almost every well-known Daily Wire personality, including Matt Walsh, Brett Cooper (who also played Ganieda in The Pendragon Cycle), Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and the controversial Candace Owens, who has since departed the company and is having a very public feud with both Daily Wire and Boreing. These things are enough for critics to shy away from it, especially in light of the escapades of Owens, but there’s more.

The story is about a failed basketball coach named Rob whose harsh coaching tactics are not as welcome in the era of DEI as they were when he was winning championships in 2008. Down on his luck, he finds himself working at a drag bar, where he is reunited with his former star player, Alex. He and Alex decide to train Alex for a local track and field event, but when Rob tries to register his protégé, he is told the men’s category is full. Alex, just coming off a shift at work, is still dressed in drag, causing the horrified race registrar to profusely apologize and allow Alex into the race… as a transgender woman.

Things get even more complicated when reporter Gwen Wilde enters the picture and convinces Rob and Alex to enter a women’s basketball competition as transgender athletes. Rob’s daughter, Winnie, a savvy eight-year-old who goes to public school and lives with her mother and extremely liberal stepfather, Kris, assists by explaining how gender identity works. The team does well, and the players all embrace their inner women, but their fame and stardom comes with unforeseen complications.

One of the strongest things about this movie is its script, which manages to touch every aspect of its subject matter in ways that highlight the absurdity of some of the arguments made about gender identity. This is probably why so many critics consider it “transphobic,” but what the movie really does is explore these arguments to conclusions that should be extreme but aren’t. Swimmer Reilly Gaines makes a poignant appearance as she is beaten in a race by one of the athletes, so this movie is definitely a direct statement on the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports.

What it surprisingly does not do is judge gender ideology any more harshly than it judges anything else. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Matt Walsh is surprisingly good in this movie as the hippie stepfather to Winnie, repeating every talking point with deadpan earnestness. But Rob is equally earnest in his own ridiculous ideas and equally lampooned in his aggressive attitudes about winning, his complete misunderstanding of gender theory, and his clumsy attempts to deal with his ex-wife, Dharby. In fact, Jeremy Boreing’s script even makes fun of itself more than once, calling out its own events. This is mostly a very intelligent script, even as it revels in its absurdity.

As much as the movie is about Rob and the team, the most important character is Winnie. Rob’s one redeeming quality is that he wants to be a good father to his daughter; meanwhile, she is more knowledgeable about the modern world that has left Rob behind.

Rosie Seraphine Harper will be a name to watch out for, as she portrays Winnie with such incredible comic timing, balanced with heartbreaking dramatic expression when things aren’t going well for her parents. One earnest scene in which she lists everything she thinks boys can do better than girls is deftly edited for heightened emotional impact, further spotlighting this young lady’s acting.

However, the movie does sometimes belabor its points, dragging out some of the sports action longer than it should. Some of the gags are carried a little too far, where they might have been funnier had they been cut down. The movie could have been 20 minutes shorter without hurting it or removing any of its best jokes. The only other thing that might diminish Lady Ballers is that some of the things in this movie that should be ridiculous are happening in real life, as evidenced by the montage that included Reilly Gaines.

I went into this movie thinking I was going to hate it, but there was a lot to like. The jokes land because they are genuinely funny and use the actors’ personalities. Its climax brings Rob’s ludicrous plan to its most obvious conclusion, then takes a heartwarming turn that underscores the movie’s theme. It doesn’t denigrate transgender people but makes the arguments that we’ve long been told we’re not allowed to make. It’s a human comedy that answers its questions with humor rather than derision.

Rotten Tomatoes gave this a 40% fresh rating, which was higher than I expected from the critics, but it turns out that rating is based on only five reviews. Meanwhile, an audience of 5000+ rated it 77%. It’s actually got a lot in common with Mike Judge’s cult classic Idiocracy in that it follows the silliness of its plot all the way to the end. It’s not great comedy, but it’s good comedy, and if the people it lampoons can’t take the joke, it’s simply because they don’t like the conclusions it comes to, not because there is anything wrong with the movie itself.

Audiences are reminded constantly that Daily Wire+ made Lady Ballers, and Candace Owens even used it to detract from Jeremy Boreing in her most recent rants against him. This is mainly to poison the well against the entire channel based on one movie. The trailer for Scary Movie 6 goes much further than Lady Ballers ever approaches, and it’s an entire movie. Using it as a tactic to detract from the streamer’s other content and Jeremy Boreing’s work is an underhanded attack, especially since the movie is better than it’s made out to be.

LADY BALLERS REVIEW SCORE

Lady Ballers is available on Daily Wire+ with a subscription and for rent on Amazon and Apple.