Orion Pictures
We’ve so far told you two things about Andrew Disney’s Balls Out (once known as Intramural, RIP, Intramural): that it’s really funny and that star Beck Bennett yells in it (a lot). If these things don’t automatically appeal to you, well, that’s kind of sad and also maybe you should try to work on that and watch Balls Out anyway. Just try not to laugh when Bennett really gets going on his yelling. Oh, you’ll laugh!
Still not sold? We’ve got you covered, thanks to an exclusive clip from the film which, yes, includes Bennett yelling a lot (did you not get that that’s the theme here?), while also harkening back to a weird time period in our collective pop cultural history when people used to do a little thing called ghost riding the whip, which they would then video, and then put on YouTube. It’s 2006 all over again, we know. Weird, right? Take a look at the yelling/ghost riding video below, and you’ll not only get the oft-promised screaming, but you’ll also get a taste of the kind of humor that you can expect from Balls Out (read: very funny, gleefully self-reflexive).
No, we didn’t mention the crying. That was a special treat.
Written by Bradley Jackson, Balls Out takes on the underserved world of college intramural sports (I was on a street hockey team in college, I was awful) and uses it as an entry point into just about every “big sports movie” trope currently available to us in modern cinema. All the pieces are there – the felled hero (paralyzed from the balls down), the ruined friendships, the big montage scenes, the wacky coaching, the evil other team that seems unstoppable but also just really mean (in this case, that’s the team led by Bennett’s appropriately named Dick) – and the film seems like the kind of thing pretty much destined to be a cult classic (did I say that in my review? bet your ass I did, and I mean it).
This clip is indicative of the kind of humor on display in the film, funny and weird stuff that’s clearly very self-aware and very plugged into pop culture (without feeling forced, as can so often happen with comedies), with a lingering sense of ribald and raunchy gags that, despite its new title, don’t overtake the entire feature. (Yes, balls are discussed at length in Balls Out, but no balls ever actually, well, come out.) If you’re looking to laugh your, ahem, belly off (I don’t know, I just don’t want to talk about BALLS anymore), Balls Out will do you right.
And, bonus, you really do get the full spectrum of Beck Bennett-issued emotions. It’s okay, buddy. Ghost riding is hard.
Balls Out is in theaters today.
