LOS ANGELES, July 22 \u2014 When filmmaker Josh Greenbaum first ventured onto a pickleball court, he found an accessible pastime that could quickly turn intense, generating not just sweat but a range of emotions in minutes.<\/p>\n
His conclusion: pickleball had all the right ingredients for comedy.<\/p>\n
Greenbaum drew on that observation to direct The Dink,\u00a0an Apple TV film premiering this Friday on the streaming platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of what\u2019s so funny about it is, you know, how quickly something that starts very (much) as casual fun can become deeply competitive and also weirdly emotional,\u201d the 47-year-old director told AFP in an interview.<\/p>\n
The Dink\u00a0brings together Dusty (Jake Johnson) \u2014\u00a0a former tennis prodigy who spends his time reminiscing about past glories, much to the chagrin of his father (Ed Harris) \u2014\u00a0and Candace (Mary Steenburgen), a divorcee who has developed a passion for pickleball in this new phase of her life.<\/p>\n
The film, which features real-time former tennis ace Andy Roddick, is about reinvention, ego, friendship, \u201cand trying to find purpose,\u201d Greenbaum said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have these kind of two lost souls, obviously of different generations, who are trying to figure out who they are and redefine themselves, and they help one another to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The movie, written by Sean Clements and produced by Hollywood staple Ben Stiller, also touches on intergenerational conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe in this version, tennis represents sort of the way things have been done, and pickleball is representing a new way,\u201d said Greenbaum, who directed Will & Harper,\u00a0a 2024 documentary chronicling a cross-country road trip by two old friends.<\/p>\n
At the heart of The Dink\u00a0is pickleball, a sport played with small rackets and perforated plastic balls that is all the rage in the United States, where schoolkids, seniors and A-list Hollywood celebrities are on board.<\/p>\n
The movie takes its name from the controlled dink shot that pickleball players deftly arc over the net.<\/p>\n
The \u201cunique\u201d relationship between tennis and pickleball was fertile ground, the director said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a contentiousness between the two sports at the moment, and I think a lot of it\u2019s driven by the fact that they\u2019re fighting over limited resources,\u201d said Greenbaum, who was trounced in his first pickleball game by opponents in their sixties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a sport that makes you laugh, that you make friends with people, that you share something together, and that you can get better at. Even, you know, at my age,\u201d says 73-year-old Steenburgen, herself an avid player.<\/p>\n
On Monday, at the film\u2019s premiere in Los Angeles, the usually red carpet was blue like a pickleball court.<\/p>\n
Greenbaum and his cast don\u2019t doubt The Dink\u00a0will draw new enthusiasts to the game.<\/p>\n
But Jake Johnson, whose character finds a second chance through pickleball, hopes the film will inspire viewers to \u201cdo what makes them happy, no matter what.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES, July 22 \u2014 When filmmaker Josh Greenbaum first ventured onto a pickleball court, he found an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[17739,23083,64,63,79539,391145,63015,85,747,235288],"class_list":["post-816015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-andy-roddick","tag-apple-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-stiller","tag-josh-greenbaum","tag-pickleball","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-the-dink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}