Nate At The Movies

As my summer winds down, I’m really trying to cherish my last few days before the school grind arrives, and a new Jake Johnson comedy seemed like a great way to do that. Despite it taking the world by storm since Covid, I haven’t played pickleball in like 15 years, so I clearly wasn’t going to be the target demographic for The Dink. I’d miss all of the pickleball inside jokes and pickleball references, but against all odds, I believed I would still find something to enjoy about this movie.

The Dink didn’t stray far from its screwball sports comedy roots, both narratively and comedically, which I was fine with. Jake Johnson’s aloof, straightforward comedy style worked well in this story—I would’ve been making fun of all of the pickleballing oldheads, too—but it was how he bounced off of Aaron Chen that elevated the humor. I’m not sure I’ve been Chen in much, but I need him in more immediately; he had a Taika Waititi sort of charm about him, heard best in his similar, hilarious deliveries (doing my research, this makes sense; he’s Australian, Waititi’s from New Zealand, you get it). The rest of the cast had some trouble keeping up with Johnson and Chen, but it wasn’t their fault. Some of the jokes in the script were just bad, and some of them didn’t know when to end, either.

It’s hard not to compare The Dink to Happy Gilmore, and unfortunately for The Dink, Happy Gilmore executed on most of their shared goals better. The one place where it really stood out was in the emotional subplot. Happy and Virginia’s romance is really cute in its childlike nature, and though I eventually came around to Dusty and Candace’s relationship, the large age gap and the awkwardness kept them from matching their contemporary’s success. The older-skewing cast made this movie feel like it was made for the same people who loved Happy Gilmore 30 years ago, so maybe it makes some sense that not everything landed for me. I did enjoy the messages about moving on and finding what makes you happy later in life, though.

The Dink was exactly what I expected it to be, but I had a pretty good time with it. The humor was stronger than I expected (shoutout to John McEnroe’s commentary and his comically large concessions), there was a solid story about finding your way back, and the film crucially didn’t bore me to death like Apple TV+’s most recent original movie, Outcome, did. I’ll take a million more Jake Johnson sports comedies, no matter what sport he’s playing, and who knows? Maybe I’ll use one of my remaining summer days to go play some pickleball (though it’s super hot in Texas; I’d need to find an indoor court).