Racewalkers: Big-Hearted Comedy About Athletes Who 'Look Like They Need to Take a Dump in a Hurry'
By Jim Slotek
Rating: A-
The dumb, heartstring-tugging, underdog sports comedy genre seldom gets its due. But there are times – and these are among them - when a Cool Runnings or Dodgeball are exactly the kind of feel-good escape to the theatre we need.
It helps if the movie itself is one big sight gag. Racewalkers is a Canadian comedy set in the world of Olympic level race walking, possibly the most ungainly sport devised for international competition. As one character describes a newly discovered talent, “That guy looks like he needs to take a dump in a hurry!”
The result is a fun film that has received accolades at film festivals over the past year – including the Jury Grand Prize at Slamdance and the audience award at the Blue Mountain Film Festival – but, in true Canadian fashion, is only now being released in theatres.
Racewalkers co-stars and was co-directed by lifelong best friends Kevin Claydon and Phil Moniz, who previously collaborated on the 10-part web comedy Short Term Sentence, about a conflicted small person and teacher who takes in an obnoxious friend from high school who needs a house in which to serve a house arrest.
Their real-life relationship serves Racewalkers even better. Moniz plays Will, whose stature prevents him from competing, but doesn’t stop him from analyzing the sport and understanding it better than the local “experts” who cruelly dismiss him. He is reminiscent of Ted Lasso’s Nathan (Nick Mohammed), the team towel boy with more sports smarts than anyone in the room.
Essentially shunned by the local racewalking establishment, Will discovers Matt Mackenzie (Claydon), a former baseball player at rock bottom, and sees something in his glutes and stride that leads him to conclude he may have discovered the next big thing in walking fast. For his part, Matt sees it as nothing more than an opportunity to succeed at something and win back his ex (Italia Ricci).
The gawkiness and geekiness of the entire exercise fuels the whole first act, as the in-training Matt comes to the attention of an egomaniacal local sport director and former Olympian Kurt Lester (Greg Bryk), who deems himself as the boss of the sport itself.
As such, in his mind he’s the one who’ll decide who moves on to international competition. And the predetermined chosen one is his mean, dunderheaded son, Ched (Robbie Amell), who is very much the Biff Tannen or Shooter McGavin of this story.
As the designated dumb guy, Amell gets many of the best lines (like the malaphor, “So you can walk the walk, but can you talk the talk?” or “Not the same as being on a baseball court, is it?”). On the villain side at least, it’s impossible to act too broadly here.
There are plot twists, and misunderstandings – crucially between Will and Matt – but in this sort of film, they’re all just window dressing for the rise of the underdog and the comeuppance of the overlord.
For the record, the Canadian racewalking community has been onside with this comedy from the beginning. Yes, they’re in on the joke as well.
CLICK HERE to read Jim Slotek’s Q&A with Kevin Claydon, Phil Moniz and Robbie Amell. CLICK HERE and HERE for Bonnie Laufer’s video interviews with all three.
Racewalkers. Directed by Kevin Claydon and Phil Moniz. Stars Kevin Claydon, Phil Moniz and Robbie Amell. In theatres Friday, July 10.