It’s Cool To Be a Crowd Pleaser Now
The term “crowd pleasing” or “crowd pleaser” has found itself layered with some derogatory undertones among critic circles. Broad appeal seems immediately discounted, as if populist filmmaking is somehow lesser than when compared to auteurs and hidden indie gems. I’ve always maintained that there is enough cinema for both; the hearty sustenance and the empty calories. Turning your nose up at popular cinema is a disservice to the medium itself. Movies are meant to be seen by many, and sometimes you need the mass appeal frameworks to achieve their ultimate goal. A world that holds hands with blockbusters and indie darlings alike is better for everyone, and while they don’t always have to be separate, I think it may be time to remove the negative connotations from crowd-pleasing labels.
This isn’t a pass for all blockbusters – some are egregiously awful even when they gross a billion dollars and fans rally against anyone with less than a 5 star review of the film online – here’s looking at you, Michael. But sometimes one captures the magic and spirit of its inspirations and uses the underdog blueprint as a cheat code for success. Enter I Play Rocky, a safe, by the numbers biopic about the making of the greatest underdog success story ever told. Anyone with a father (and I imagine that’s everyone in some capacity) knows the story of Rocky. And anyone who wanted to know more can find everything there is to know about its fruition on Wikipedia. I Play Rocky brings nothing new to the table – not in the genre, the story, or even the making of retelling.
Standard Biopic With Real Heart and Spirit
It’s about as standard as these things get, and as the world’s premier biopic/how did they get made genre hater, you can imagine my surprise when I found myself being won over by I Play Rocky. I walked into the theater with my arms crossed, ready to hate-roll my eyes early and often. But I left with my arms raised in victory, like I just ran the steps at the Philly Museum of Art. You can write it off if you want, even give it some round losses on the scorecards.
But it would be foolish to count it out of the fight entirely. Largely because I Play Rocky knows exactly what it is, what it is doing, why it’s doing it and who it’s doing it for. It’s so coded to those that love the original it becomes hard not to root for it as if you were actually watching Rocky. With its brisk pacing and incredible lead performance, I Play Rocky won me over completely and activated the dad movie core in me like a sleeper agent.
There’s not really a reason to go over what the film is about. I think its pretty clear from the title, and anyone with even the slightest peripheral knowledge of Rocky will know just about everything that happens here. Struggling actor Sylvester Stallone writes the Rocky script and refuses to sell it unless he can play the lead. Hollywood fumbles over and over again, he gets his wish on a shoestring budget and impossible scheduling odds, filmmaking chaos ensues and the doubts mount and it turns out to be one of the most successful films in history. It’s a big bet on yourself no matter the odds story that has been told and retold countless times throughout movies. I Play Rocky understands that nothing will be better than the origin story of Rocky itself, so it’s best to just give the people what they want and change nearly nothing.
Ippolito is a Revelation
This allows fans of Rocky and people unaware of its making of details to simply enjoy the ride of well crafted nostalgia. Is it safe? Sure. Is its predictable? Absolutely. It does nothing outside of its genre confines. But Farrelly knows how to do the safe and predictable well, tapping into all the things that make Rocky great and memorable and littering his own telling of events with these undeniable moments. It helps too that you’ve got an uncanny Anthony Ippolito, a relative unknown who – like Stallone himself – refuses to throw away his shot. More than an impression, Ippolito displays a pure, complete embodiment of the real life actor. Ippolito is a revelation as a young, hungry Stallone trying to make it. He’s an underdog himself, and believes in the character as much as he believes in himself.
Intelligence and Talent On Full Display for Ippolito to Embody
He also displays an intelligence not often associated with Stallone. The famous marble-mouthed speech patterns of the star often signals a lug-headed kind of persona – the long string of beefcake action films probably didn’t help. But anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes with or watching Stallone outside of his onscreen work will know that that couldn’t be further from the truth. I Play Rocky and Ippolito himself add a layer of complexity to Stallone, and grant him the skills and talent that warrant his stubbornness in wanting to be the lead of his film.
I Play Rocky may emphasize that he wrote the script in 3 days and give it the old “saw it on a the tv as an instant inspiration” origin story, but it also makes it clear that Stallone had been writing scripts for years before his big break. He studied cinema, studied writing, consumed books and scripts and movies at an incredible rate so when the opportunity came to his doorstep, he was ready. I Play Rocky may not go into these aspects in detail, but it allows Ippolito to tap into more than just getting the voice down and grant him some intelligence and confidence and autonomy. You know, like a real person.
With this is back pocket, I Play Rocky works best because of Ippolito’s ability to always stay close to the heart of Rocky and truth about who Stallone actually was at the time. And it also helps that he naturally looks like a young Stallone and doesn’t need a whole lot of hair and makeup to achieve the look. Nothing would be more of a death knell than a well known actor donning a prosthetic nose and imitating a man they probably know in real life. Using a striking unknown lookalike filled with his own hunger to succeed is an undeniable recipe for success and mirrors the core of both Rocky and I Play Rocky.
The supporting cast only has to follow his lead, and all of them do and are up to the task. There’s no weak link in a film that honestly could be phoned in by everyone involved and probably wouldn’t matter all that much to movie goers. But no one does. Even if their characters are caricatures on the page or aren’t given as much to do, everyone makes the most of their roles in I Play Rocky.
A Great Cast Rounds Out the Success
Sure, as a film critic and movie lover, I’m obviously going to be bowled over with Letts as Sandy Maddox constantly taking jabs at Paramount. And I have to give a special shoutout to Stephan James as young Carl Weathers, who splashes onto the screen with over-the-top charisma and makes mince meat of every single brief moment he’s given. And Jay Duplass as the director of Rocky is the perfect movie-making comic relief. Razor-sharp timing and electric comedic chops vibrate off Duplass in I Play Rocky, elevating the weaker elements of the film in which we find everyone running around recreating iconic Rocky moments in a behind-the-scenes but shenanigans kind of framing.
Farrelly just gets it. Completely unconcerned with the gravitas and letting the story of Rocky speak for itself in his making of retelling. He gives us the moments that matter, the highlights we remember, and reminds us of just how good Rocky actually is without ever taking away from I Play Rocky itself. Wanting to leave the theater and immediately go watch Rocky is a feature, not a bug. The film displays the spirit of what makes a legendary film so iconic, so who cares if we can just watch it in its original format? If it conjures the same emotional response, be it Stallone or Ippolito shouting in the doorway for his Oscar clip, isn’t that a win for both? I’d argue it is, and coming from someone who would normally turn his nose up on these kinds of blatantly manipulative recreations, that’s kind of a big deal.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I was completely won over by I Play Rocky. The greatest underdog story ever made is always going to be a winner. And while Rocky may be a knockout, I Play Rocky is still a win by unanimous decision. Instead of a one-two punch, it wins with a stiff jab and a mean right hook. It wins through fundamentals and a good base, defensively sound and meaningful footwork. In boxing, a win is a win. And I Play Rocky adopts that mantra and decides to take the fight through the full 15 rounds rather than trying to be flashy and go for something that isn’t in its wheelhouse.
It’s strangely comprised of everything I hate about the genre as a whole, and yet I found myself letting go, loosening up and just floating in the ring as the predictability wafted over me. You just can’t deny a winner, no matter how hard your instincts tell you to. And I Play Rocky proves that betting big against the underdog is a mistake. I’m glad I eventually took the under on this one. The payout is a good movie made on the back of a great one, and the judges’ scorecards reveal a hard-fought but well-earned victory.
All combat sports analogies aside, I Play Rocky is just a damn good time at the movies. Bursting with nostalgia and spot on recreations, it is a beautiful love letter to Rocky and the underdog in us all. There’s always one of these in the awards race, and given many of its current peers and some other, far lesser successes that went on to do great things undeservedly so (looking at you, Bohemian Rhapsody), you can put me in the I Play Rocky corner. If one of these HAS to be there, I’d prefer it to be this.
I Play Rocky is a winner and your dad is gonna love it.
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