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Each week during the summer, people of all ages head to their neighborhood parks and fields to hit and catch and race around the diamond. But few of those games turn out like the one in the rec-league baseball comedy Undrafted, where the usual amateur baseball game spirals completely out of control.
Undrafted follows twelve intramural baseball teammates as they play their first playoff game. It seems as though almost everyone but the team’s coach, Ty (Duke Davis Roberts), understands that the game doesn’t really matter. Most of the players are wild and unruly or even hung over. But tensions are high because the team’s star player, John Mazetti (Aaron Tveit), has just found out that he wasn’t selected in the draft. And as John struggles to figure out his next steps, this inconsequential game turns into a battle on the neighborhood baseball diamond.
This amateur sports comedy is a fun-filled film about friendship, competition, and the love of the game. This intramural baseball game is most likely unlike anything you’ve seen before. The stands may not be filled with cheering fans, but the dugouts are anything but serene. Here, teammates fight one another and taunt their competitors in outrageous ways. They give advice, and they offer their own kind of frustrated, awkward support to their good friend, whose disappointment affects them all in different ways. Though their reactions may sometimes seem strange and even extreme, it’s the way that some guys express their feelings: with a big, surprising flood of emotions. And the way that they rally around their friend and teammate makes the story both funny and sweet.
The somewhat loose story plays out between wild meltdowns in the outfield, bench bets in the dugout, a brawl between teams, and a little bit of baseball, too. But, unfortunately, not all of the parts come together well. The tone is uneven, the performances aren’t always playing at a professional level, and some of the characters are more annoying and uncomfortable than amusing. Some of them are completely over-the-top in their attempt to portray the players’ varying levels of competitiveness, and it works. Others, however, miss the mark—like Roberts, who yells louder (and more often) than he probably should. But while the film does log its share of errors, it’s also awkwardly, amusingly charming.
Undrafted offers a different perspective on the same old pro sports movie. Like its forlorn character, the film itself won’t make it big, but if you ever sat in the dugout and dreamed of sports stardom, you’ll enjoy the laughs, the heart, and the quirky players in this amateur sports comedy.
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