Movie Review – ’80 for Brady’

80 for Brady (2023) is literally a story you could take your grandmother to see since it will have familiar actresses they know and you won’t need to explain any new slang to them.

In a plot that feels straight out of the 1980s, Lou (Lily Tomlin), Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno), and Betty (Sally Field) are huge New England Patriots fans, but we’re not supposed to hold that against them. Lou is pragmatic and down-to-earth, and she’s the one who masterminds their trip to Houston. Trish has embraced her twilight years by becoming a Pat’s Romance author and reliving her twenties with a string of doomed. if briefly exciting, short relationships. Maura is recently widowed and uses her friends as a literal lifeline, and Betty is a retired professor who’s looking to peel away from her loving, but needy husband for just a weekend. They have rituals they believe will help the Pats win, and have cheered their team from the comfort of Lou’s living room to the Super Bowl. A little bit of magic gets them VIP Tickets to Houston and due to their strong personalities, a kind of pacemaker-friendly hilarity ensues.

Part road trip, part geriatric Grrl Power, all fantastical fantasy, 80 For Brady at its heart is a film about the power of friendship and optimism and the thrill of seeing one’s dreams come true. While it’s touted as based on a true story, it’s not, it’s only based on a photograph while the story itself is spun from whole cloth. You could choose to believe that all of those events happened, if slightly embellished if that warms your heart, but not believing doesn’t take away from the experience.

It’s tame, like really tame, with a distinct 80s screwball comedy feel. There are lots of celebrity cameos, from Guy Fieri to Billy Porter to the 2017 New England Patriots. The comedy is cringe-worthy but wholesome, and we laugh with the foibles, not at them. It’s easy to see our more modern loved ones up there, in a giddy shuffle towards that last great adventure.

I’m sure producer Tom Brady had every intention of being in Super Bowl LVII this year that though not with the Patriots, and release was likely timed to coincide with the off-week lead-up. This is not to say that fans of Brady or the Seasoned Seniors will find other reasons to stay home. I wouldn’t call any part of 80 for Brady laugh-out-loud funny, but once I shelved that suspension of belief to keep my eyeballs from rolling out of my head, I could settle in for some good-natured fun. This is a movie that requires you to want to have some fun at the expense of reality, like having a low-volume and casual conversation in any sports-park food court, stealing away to play celebrity poker with Patton Oswalt, or making that one special bet that changes lives forever.

It’s escapist fantasy, and it’s nice to see it in a movie with older actors where consequences don’t matter, logic is inconsequential, and everyone has a happy ending.

80 for Brady (2023) is rated PG-13 for granny swears, edibles, and fully clothed adults in janitor closets.