National Champions, the latest film from director Ric Roman Waugh - best known for directing the recent action films Angel Has Fallen (2019) and Greenland (2020) starring Gerard Butler, is a bit of an awkward fit as a theatrical release. Compelling with solid performances and often extremely moving during its 116-minute runtime, National Champions feels more like an elaborate promotional YouTube video than that of a film to experience in a movie theater setting. For those who are selective as to which movie(s) to watch on the big screen, waiting to watch this one at home is highly recommended.

The premise of the movie, originally conceived as a stage play, revolves around a fictional star college quarterback named LeMarcus James (played by Stephan James, best known for If Beale Street Could Talk). A Heisman winner who has led his team to the national title game, James is expected to be the #1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. However, a shocking turn sets up the plot for this movie - James and his roommate Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig, Cato from The Hunger Games) shock the world by taking to Twitter days before the national championship game to start a movement among players to boycott the contest unless the multibillion-dollar NCAA agrees to pay them as employees.

The film, executive produced by NFL Quarterback Russell Wilson, features a surprisingly stacked cast for a low budget and relatively obscure project like this. J.K. Simmons gives a convincing performance as a head coach that feels like a rough approximation of Brian Kelly. The aforementioned Stephan James has been well-received for roles like Beale Street and portraying legends like John Lewis and Jesse Owens in the past. Comedian Lil Rel Howery, who by my count has been in 8 films to release in 2021, plays a sympathetic defensive coordinator. Uzo Aduba, star of the HBO Max hit In Treatment, portrays an NCAA lawyer with some surprising depth. Other well-known actors - Tim Blake Nelson, Timothy Olyphant, Jeffrey Donovan, David Koechner, Broadway legend Krisitn Chenoweth and even former Vine star King Bach round out the supporting cast.

To the film’s credit, each of the actors appear committed to their roles in what is an interesting story featuring several “oooooh, no he didn’t!” twists and turns that got the theater crowd buzzing. As a person some might describe as "too personally invested" in college football, I can attest that for the most part National Champions feels very true to life. Once James and Sunday announce their boycott, the film lays out a mostly plausible fallout in terms of reactions from other players, coaches, boosters, media, and NCAA officials. It also does a great job to present both sides of the argument on paying collegiate athletes, even though you will never question which side the film is on. The film takes care to humanize the “main villains” as well. Although the screenplay was written by a white man - Adam Mervis - I thought it portrayed the complicated and uncomfortable racial realities of college football, a sport controlled mostly by rich white men that profits off the unpaid labor of mostly poor Black young men. LeMarcus even explicitly compares it to the slave trade. Noteworthy: real-life figures including Russell Wilson, NFL Cornerback Malcolm Jenkins and television personalities like Michael Smith, Mike Greenberg, Nick Wright and Jemele Hill make cameo appearances as themselves and lend even more to the film’s authenticity. It is evident that the film is a project from those in the industry who understand the subject matter and sincerely want to “#FixTheSystem”, as the lead characters put it.

Unfortunately, the decision to create a near 2-hour film centered on preaching – repeated quotation of biblical scripture included - the message that the NCAA is unjust is part of an ill-fitting mesh between subject, medium, and budget that ultimately holds the film back from glory.

Screenwriter Adam Mervis originally intended for this premise to be a stage play and pivoted to making a film once that idea was met with lukewarm reception. Throughout National Champions there are times when the movie stops the admittedly flimsy plot in its tracks to let its characters deliver dramatic monologues - which would actually work better during a stage play. The star QB preaches his vision for a more just world to his teammates, laying out the bleak realities facing many of them who won’t go on to NFL stardom. The head coach returns fire with similar evangelizing about the gift of youth and never passing up a rare opportunity to win glory. Uzo Adoba’s lawyer character gets her spotlight moment as a stand in for the female collegiate athletes often left out of this discussion.

Although the screenplay and performances are compelling enough for many entertaining and persuasive on-screen moments - the problem with them is two-fold. First, the film’s low budget rears its ugly head, most prominently in the cinematography. The movie looks as if it’s been shot entirely using a cell phone’s portrait mode. Very rarely, no matter what is actually happening on screen, is more than one person in focus on camera. At some points nothing is in focus at all - whether showing two people sitting across in a quiet diner, six people huddled in a busy bar, three people chatting in a small hotel room, or 70 people waiting in a conference room, it does not matter - the focus is non-existent. During LeMarcus James’ dramatic motivational monologue which feels perfect for a spotlight on a blacked out stage - the camera will cut, refocus on one of his teammates eating a slice of pizza, then cut back and refocus again. Some people may not notice these kinds of things, especially when watching at home with the lower expectations that usually entails, but I found the bizarre cinematography extremely distracting and it hurt these moments that are the centerpiece of the film.

The second problem with the monologues that are the main mechanism for the film to spread its message is that I’m not sure for whom they are intended. This is a problem with the film overall as well. While I’d say that National Champions does accurately and fairly portray each side of the NCAA Amateurs debate, it doesn’t present any ideas that would be new to either side. The debate over paying college players has been going on for decades, and anyone even casually interested in college football has more than likely already heard everything presented here and formed their opinion. The characters trading monologues feels like an argument in the replies of a Twitter thread come to life on screen. Bringing with it all the positional inertia and closed-mindedness that implies. Maybe the overt appeals to Christianity throughout the film – several prayers, quotes of scripture, one of the main characters literally being named “Sunday” – will help to chisel hardened hearts and open up some closed wallets, but I have my doubts.

So, if National Champions is not going to change the minds of college football fans, maybe it can get people who are not fans talking about this injustice. But the problem with that idea is that this is a low-budget, quietly marketed movie centered on college football going to painstaking lengths to accurately and authentically portray the inner-workings of the sport. Also, it’s only exclusive to movie theaters (for now). I’m not sure about you, but I don’t know a ton of people who are not NCAA football fans but have enough interest in a movie like this to rush down to their local Regal or AMC and see it during an ongoing pandemic.

I imagine the reality for the average moviegoers who see this film will be that they will be watching it with less than 10 other people while nodding to themselves in agreement with the film's message, saying “yeah, he preaching! That’s what I’ve been saying for years!” - and personally, I can’t recommend spending the time nor the money to have that type of experience in a theater. The film's baffling cinematography, strange plot conveniences and ultimately unsatisfying conclusion hold it back from being worth any true effort to see. However, it’s more than entertaining enough to catch it on a streaming service sometime in the future.

Grade: D+