Pressure Point – Great Sports Drama
Director: Michael Mailer
Writer: Vijin Gjaja (Screenplay)
Starring: Michael Shannon, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Alex MacNicoll, Michael Tacconi, Lilly Krug
Plot: During their last year at an Ivy League college in 1999, a group of friends and crew teammates’ lives are changed forever when an army vet takes over as coach of their dysfunctional rowing team.
Runtime: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Pressure Point starts when an Ivy League college recruits Coach Jack Murphy (Shannon) to lead the rowing team to success, with the team captain Alex (Ludwig) has been lining himself up for a future in the sport, but he isn’t the best team player.
As the Coach looks to change things up in the team, Alex finds himself needing to learn about his place in the team, with Kimble (MacNicoll) getting a chance to take the leader position. Most importantly seeing the team address their problems and compete at the next level.
Thoughts on Pressure Point
Characters & Performances – Coach Jack Murphy is veteran who has been recruited to turn a dysfunctional rowing team into a team of champions, he will need to find a new way to motivate the team, making the difficult decisions to make the team better. He will be given a great set of speeches to inspire the younger generation, where he will show the pain he has been through in life. Michael Shannon is the best performer here, much like you would expect from the legend himself. Alex is the captain of the team, but a selfish young man being pushed into this life by his father. He struggles with the decision being placed on him, seeing his own future being put at risk by his new position in the team. John is the member of the team that gets assigned to be the new leader, he has a calmer approach to bringing the team together one that will see them coming together on a different level than before. Chris is the new student who likes to keep to himself, he has a darker past with loss, making it harder for him to let people in, with a lot of the film focusing on him getting a chance to learn to see there are good people around him. The younger cast are great showing the problems their characters are going through with ease.
Story – Pressure Point is a story that will focus on a rowing team looking to get back to their best, getting a new coach that will look to teach them about life, bringing them back together and learn what is important about this teamwork rowing can bring out in people. In the core of the story, it is everything you would expect from an inspirational tale of athletes needing to improve themselves to improve their performance. We will see some big turns in the story and we only focus on three members of the team, while the other members just feel like they are there more than anything else. Everything is done to make this have what it needs without ever testing the audience to the next level.
Signature Entertainment presents Pressure Point on Digital Platforms 7th February
Final Thoughts – Pressure Point is everything you would expect from an inspirational sports drama.
