The Way Back (2020)

2020

108 mins

Directed by Gavin O'Connor
85%
84%
Drama
Sport

Ben Affleck plays a widowed former basketball all-star struggling with addiction in this sports drama. He attempts a comeback by... More

Ben Affleck plays a widowed former basketball all-star struggling with addiction in this sports drama. He attempts a comeback by becoming the coach of a high school team. From the director of Warrior and The Accountant.

Jack Cunningham (Affleck) once had a life filled with promise. In high school, he was a basketball phenom with a full university scholarship, when suddenly, for reasons unknown, he walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Now years later, Jack is spiraling down, triggered by an unspeakable loss, and drowning in the alcoholism that cost him his marriage and any hope for a better life.

When he is asked to coach the basketball team at his alma mater, which has fallen far since his glory days, he reluctantly accepts, surprising no one more than himself. As the boys start to come together as a team and win, Jack may have finally found a reason to confront the demons that have derailed him. But will it be enough to fill the void, heal the deep wounds of his past, and set him on the road to redemption?

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Where to watch The Way Back (2020)

The Way Back (2020) is available to stream in New... More Zealand now on YouTube and Netflix and Neon Rentals.

There is no screening information for this title.

The Way Back (2020) | Ratings & Reviews

85_%215 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
84_%2,704 reviews
Audience score rating

"… just another average sports drama."

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FilmInk

"Ben Affleck brings his acting A game to this sports/redemption drama that plays way below his level, but still lets us root for the struggling star and the basketball coach he plays to find and honest way back from alcohol addiction."

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Rolling Stone

"It's a performance that suggests the most interesting stretch of Affleck's career as an actor is still to come."

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Vulture

"Brad Ingelsby's screenplay is the film's guiltiest instrument, shortchanging even the most conventional pleasures of a redemption-themed sports film."

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Time Out

"O'Connor finds ways to keep viewers subtly off guard; just when you think "The Way Back" will turn into a Big Game movie, it reverts to being an addiction drama (and then goes back again)."

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The New York Times

"The Way Back is a film stuck on the runway, quietly circling around, always threatening to fly but never managing to get off the ground."

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The Guardian

"[A] modestly well-made Sunday-school lesson."

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Variety

"It's meant as a firm compliment to say that The Way Back looks and feels like a film that could have been made at any time between the early 1970s and right now."

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Hollywood Reporter

"Hampered by a needlessly talky and obvious script, and the far-too naked attempt to be a "good" film, at the expense of also being an entertaining and engaging one, The Way Back is a worthy and well made artefact."

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