'80 for Brady' assembles screen legends to celebrate [checks notes] Tom Brady : Pop Culture Happy Hour (2024)

STEPHEN THOMPSON, HOST:

In the movie "80 For Brady," four best friends take a road trip to the Super Bowl so they can see their favorite quarterback play in person. The film stars Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field and Tom Brady himself. I'm Stephen Thompson. And today we are talking about "80 For Brady" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

THOMPSON: Joining me today is Daisy Rosario, senior supervising producer of audio at Slate, where she is relaunching "Dear Prudence," Slate's advice podcast.

Welcome back, Daisy.

DAISY ROSARIO: Thank you for having me, Stephen.

THOMPSON: Also joining us today is writer Ella Ceron, whose book "Viva Lola Espinoza" will be out in April and is available for pre-order now. Hello, Ella.

ELLA CERON: Hi.

THOMPSON: It is a pleasure to have you both. So sometimes it is hard to sum up a film's many nuances in just a few moments.

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: This is not one of those times.

ROSARIO: (Laughter) No.

THOMPSON: "80 For Brady" is based on a group of real-life friends, all of whom were over 80 at the time, who formed a group called Over 80 for Brady, named, of course, for their favorite NFL quarterback, Tom Brady, whom you might remember from his most recent retirement last week. In "80 For Brady," their story is very heavily fictionalized. The film has four friends traveling to the 2017 Super Bowl to see what turned out to be a thrilling game between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.

Of course, they experience many obstacles and antics along the way. If you have thought to yourself, is there a scene in "80 For Brady" in which these women accidentally take drugs? - then you are on the right track. You've got four legends of stage and screen. You've got one superstar quarterback who just happens to serve as a producer on "80 For Brady."

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: And you've got a boatload of cameos, many of which are spoiled in the film's trailer. "80 For Brady" was directed by first timer Kyle Marvin and written by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern, who were two of the screenwriters on "Booksmart." "80 For Brady" is in theaters now.

Daisy Rosario, I'm going to start with you. What did you think of "80 For Brady"?

ROSARIO: I don't know that I can overstate how excited I was for this movie. Like, I remember seeing the trailer, and I was like, I hate Tom Brady, but I love the idea of these four ladies. And it just seemed like it was going to be the right kind of corny. Like, inject it directly into my veins. Like, I've been in need of feel-good stuff. And I'm very sad to say that it was meh, which was a bummer. Like, it could have been even more fun than it was. And that's not to say that I didn't enjoy watching it in the sense of, like, those four women - I will watch them do almost anything.

But when you think about the fact that it is this kind of friendship-adventure movie, obviously, you know, focusing on older women, but it definitely makes you think of movies like "Girls Trip" or "Booksmart," it just kind of lacks the attention to detail that makes those great and, like, beautiful, comfort-food watching. And it's just like when you have one of those days where all you want is to, like, go home and, like, order your favorite takeout and just watch something that makes you feel good, but it's like, the takeout came, and it's, like, a little cold.

THOMPSON: Oh, wow. OK.

ROSARIO: And it's just - you can't quite get it right.

THOMPSON: All right. How about you, Ella?

CERON: You know, I think I was appropriately satiated from what I was expecting with this movie. Like, it did feel a little dialed in, but I think everybody knew that they were dialing it in, so I didn't mind it as much. Honestly, had a better time than I was kind of anticipating. It's not a football movie, and it knows it is not a football movie. And there is a lot of "SportsCenter" footage, to be sure, but it doesn't take football all that seriously. It's - this is perhaps the antithesis of "Remember The Titans." And so it knows what it is. I will say that.

THOMPSON: Yeah. It is more a fandom movie than a football movie.

ROSARIO: Oh, yeah.

THOMPSON: I think that's good context. Did you come into this movie with feelings about Tom Brady?

CERON: No.

(LAUGHTER)

CERON: You know, congrats to Tom Brady on his second retirement. I do not feel any particular way about Tom Brady. He is there.

THOMPSON: I don't know that this movie has anything to say about Tom Brady.

CERON: No.

(LAUGHTER)

CERON: And, you know, they really did seem to be like, OK, Tom - like in the few scenes that he is in, they were like, stand here; say this line. I did think there is a - and not to spoil it, but there is a repeated gag in which Tom Brady seems to be, like, this omniscient voice of God and, like, comes out of the TV screen to talk to Lily Tomlin's character. And that seems like an appropriate enough gag. I was like, OK, that's a solid use of Tom Brady - this kind of like, glassy-eyed motivational speaker role.

THOMPSON: Yeah.

CERON: But it understood the limitations and tried to work with them to the best of its ability of this movie.

THOMPSON: Yeah. He's kind of a cipher in this movie and perhaps in life. This movie does not mention Gisele Bundchen, whom he's divorcing.

CERON: It did cheat away - 'cause it does have the moment of all the, like, ambient footage of him winning the Super Bowl. There is a two-second clip in which you can kind of see the back of her head because they just couldn't, like, I guess, cut away around it because he's just being mobbed by all of his loved ones after he won, which is understandable.

THOMPSON: It just - it excises a lot of his life and career and tends to focus mostly on his handsomeness.

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: I was talking to a friend about seeing this movie. And they said, oh, that looks cute. And I think, like, coming away from the movie, I was like, if you are going into a movie, like, wanting an hour and a half of enormously charming actresses with Hall of Fame careers getting to enjoy each other's company - like, there is really no tension in this movie - it's cute. It's fine. You know how "Ted Lasso" - this is going to sound like a pivot, but it's not. You know how the TV show "Ted Lasso" was based on a series of TV commercials?

ROSARIO: Yes.

THOMPSON: When you watch those TV commercials, you didn't necessarily think, this would make a really great TV show. I watched this movie and thought, this would make a really charming series of TV commercials.

ROSARIO: Oh, gosh. Yes, it really would.

CERON: Oh, my gosh. Now I want to see that.

THOMPSON: I kind of think that was the ideal form for this story and not necessarily a feature film that you go to see in movie theaters.

CERON: Right. I mean, it does feel like an hour-and-36-minute long NFL commercial.

THOMPSON: Oh, yeah.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

CERON: It is a commercial for the NFL for an hour and 36 minutes starring all of my mother's favorite actresses.

THOMPSON: Yeah.

ROSARIO: I feel like that's part of why I noticed that I felt it was lacking, though. I mean, like, we are in a period where, like, there's just so much - fan service feels like the wrong word here, but just kind of, like, leaning into kind of giving people the thing that you think that they really want. And it just felt like they got to the edge of a lot of jokes and went, that's good enough, instead of kind of understanding what really would make it super funny and, like, really hit as, like, a long-standing moment. And I think the fact that I actually saw this in a theater with an audience is part of why I feel pretty firm on that because, you know, the audience was laughing a little bit more than me, but it wasn't as if I felt wildly off the tone in the room.

I think about really fun filmmakers that have made things that didn't need to be as good as they were. Like, I think of Phil Lord and Chris Miller when I think of, you know, how the first "Lego Movie" was like - you're like, it's an ad. And then you're like, wow, they actually did something great.

THOMPSON: Yeah.

ROSARIO: And I just feel like with the ingredients that they had, this had the space to be that, and it just didn't quite reach it. And I also had, like, a lot of really hard stuff happening at the end of 2022 that made me kind of really appreciate those comfort food movies when everything has just been hard and you need to just have a good vibe. And so I've been rewatching movies, you know, like "Girls Trip," like "Crazy, Stupid, Love" - things that just give a good vibe. And just...

THOMPSON: Yeah.

ROSARIO: ...I felt very aware of the fact that, like, all of the ingredients to this could lead to one of those, but I'm going to forget that this exists.

THOMPSON: Yeah. I mean, I think once this film locks into its final act, where it feels a little more like a sports movie and it's a little more the crowd and the big game and all that, it kind of locks in to where it's pretty engrossing. But I think that hour leading up to that is really slow.

CERON: And part of that, I think, is the foibles and, like, the high jinks that they get into are all very low stakes, which is fine because it's such a comfort movie. But the resolutions are all very tidy and presented almost immediately. It's like, OK, we solved this thing; on to the next. There's no real one big problem. It's just - I mean, for - so Lily Tomlin's character, there are very large stakes. And I thought that was a really nice note that she handled really well in a way that wasn't saccharine, in a way that could have been a lot more maudlin. And she was just phenomenal with that piece of work. But a lot of the lower-stakes stuff had that immediate resolution that felt, like, a little deflating - not to use the term deflate again - like, about Tom Brady.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: Was that - OK, be honest. Was that in your notes?

CERON: No, it wasn't. It genuinely wasn't. I will say my brother is, like, the biggest Patriots fan in the world. So...

ROSARIO: I'll add that I'm a Giants fan. I'm a New York Giants fan. And so we are very proud to be one of the teams that has beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.

THOMPSON: Eighteen and one.

ROSARIO: Yup. And - 18 and 1 forever. But there was a point in this movie where, you know, in a clip from a game, they show Tom Brady getting sacked. And I, out loud in the theater, went, yeah. And the - before even realizing it.

THOMPSON: Yeah, I mean, Tom Brady has been tormenting my teams...

ROSARIO: Yes.

THOMPSON: Since 1998 when he was with the Michigan Wolverines.

ROSARIO: Oh, my God.

THOMPSON: Very ready for his retirement. Happier to see him on the big screen than on my TV.

CERON: See, I'm from LA, from the era specifically when we were a basketball town, and we still are a basketball town. And I feel like maybe I am actually the target audience and not - like, I understand football, but I don't really, like, have a strong inclination either way. I would have loved to hear what the audience sounds like in a theater in Boston when this movie is playing.

THOMPSON: Yeah.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

CERON: It would be interesting.

THOMPSON: I would imagine.

ROSARIO: I love fandom, though. Like, I'm someone who loves going to live sporting events and all of that kind of stuff, even if I don't know much about it. So, you know, the aspect of that part that is celebratory of that, of kind of, like, getting your friends together and doing something like that and kind of the extra things that happen at the Super Bowl versus going to just a regular season Sunday game - like, I thought a lot of that stuff was fun. But that's the thing. I just wanted it to be memorable, and I just don't think it quite gets there.

THOMPSON: Sure.

CERON: I do appreciate the way they kind of gave each of the women one of the quadrants of fandom in that Sally Field is this MIT professor, and she is just a savant, and she knows how to call the plays, and she knows the exact statistical breakdowns. And then obviously, Lily Tomlin has this really heartfelt connection to it. Jane Fonda is...

THOMPSON: Writes Gronk fan fiction.

CERON: Oh my gosh.

ROSARIO: Oh, so funny.

CERON: That Gronk is a fan of. Like...

ROSARIO: I love that moment.

CERON: Perfect moment. And then Rita Moreno, I guess, just thinks they're all really, really cute...

ROSARIO: (Laugher).

CERON: ...Which is something my grandma would do. And so I appreciated that they all kind of had that dynamic. And they did try to give each of the women interiority and different things to kind of overcome, to varying degrees of success, I would say.

THOMPSON: I would agree.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

CERON: But, you know, like, we're at such a long-overdue moment for realizing that older actresses deserve really meaty, good roles. And some of them are getting these really meaty, good roles. This was not that. But I think, you know, if a rising tide brings all ships up or whatever the saying is, also give them the bad roles.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

CERON: But this is, you know, kind of a byproduct of recognizing that older women can and do deserve screen time.

THOMPSON: Yeah, I'm certainly glad to see them working. I'm glad to see them working together...

ROSARIO: Yeah.

THOMPSON: ...You know, and that's a joy to see, even if I think the movie falls a little short. Did you guys have any favorite cameos in this film? We can each spoil one.

(LAUGHTER)

ROSARIO: Well, the Gronk cameo was already mentioned. Gronk is a funny weirdo, so that was a fun one. I wanted more cameos, I think, was part of my issue. I wanted ones that were just really kind of fun and layered and not always kind of called out the way they were.

CERON: Yeah. The fact that they got Guy Fieri to be such a central part of this ended up being kind of delightful.

THOMPSON: There's a lot more Guy Fieri in this movie than I expected, as a Guy Fieri defender.

(LAUGHTER)

CERON: Yeah, that's not a cameo. That is a...

ROSARIO: Yeah. He's just a cast member...

CERON: ...Pivotal role.

THOMPSON: It's a role (laughter).

ROSARIO: Yeah, he is - it doesn't feel right to call that a cameo at all.

THOMPSON: (Laughter) I, too, want to shout out the work of Gronk...

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: ...In this movie. He shows up very late. He shows up after the first time I thought to myself, where's Gronk in this movie? Gronk has to be in this movie, right?

ROSARIO: Oh yeah.

THOMPSON: He is so funny.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

THOMPSON: He's had such an interesting post-football life. He pops up in commercials constantly. His persona is overgrown 6-year-old.

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: And I see him potentially having a career almost like a John Cena or, you know, one of these guys who you don't necessarily think has comedy chops but does.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

THOMPSON: This should have been "80 For Gronk".

(LAUGHTER)

ROSARIO: Look; I say this as a Giants fan - like, if Eli Manning is being paid to talk after his football career, then Gronk certainly deserves to.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

CERON: Well, that was, like, actually - now that you say that, I do think Marshawn Lynch was my favorite cameo. And...

THOMPSON: There you go.

ROSARIO: Yeah.

CERON: ...He has impeccable timing.

THOMPSON: He's very funny.

ROSARIO: He does. Yeah.

CERON: And I would love to see "80 For Marshawn".

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: I think a Marshawn Lynch-Rob Gronkowski buddy comedy - book it. Turn this movie into a series of commercials. Those are the two big ideas to come out of this conversation.

ROSARIO: You know what I want? I've got a third idea. I want - 'cause they just announced recently they're doing "Girls Trip 2," and they're, like, sending them to Ghana or something. I want, like, "Girls Trip 7" - those four ladies are "80 For Marshawn". Like...

(LAUGHTER)

ROSARIO: ...I just - I want those - I want these two things to converge in the future.

CERON: The "80 For" Cinematic Universe.

ROSARIO: Yeah, exactly.

THOMPSON: Exactly.

ROSARIO: That's what I want (laughter).

THOMPSON: I love it. God, we are just a font of wisdom and ideas.

ROSARIO: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: We want to know what you think about "80 For Brady." Find us at facebook.com/pchh. That brings us to the end of our show. Daisy Rosario, Ella Ceron, thanks so much to both of you for being here.

ROSARIO: Thank you.

CERON: Thanks so much for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

THOMPSON: We want to take a moment to thank our POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR+ subscribers. We appreciate you so much for showing your support of NPR. If you haven't signed up yet, want to show your support and listen to this show without any sponsor breaks, head over to plus.npr.org/happyhour.

This episode was produced by Candice Lim and edited by Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson. And we will see you all tomorrow when we'll be talking about "Magic Mike's Last Dance".

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.