Apple’s new pickleball movie, The Dink, drops on July 24. Produced by Ben Stiller (Dodgeball), directed by Josh Greenbaum (Spaceballs: The New One) and written by Sean Clements (Workaholics), this flick has an impressive comedy pedigree. Add in New Girl’s Jake Johnson, as former tennis prodigy Dusty Boyd, the always effervescent Mary Steenburgen as the woman who turns him on to pickleball and breakout Australian comedian Aaron Chen as Dusty’s sidekick and all the pieces are in place for a great sports comedy. But how does it fare translating the world of pickleball to the screen?
The Hollywood Reporter sent me, their only contributor who moonlights as a PPR-certified pickleball instructor to assess how the cast fared portraying pickleball on the courts, how well they captured the essence of the game and how the film holds up overall.
I had been playing competitively for about four years when I decided to pursue my coaching certification. I struck at just the right time. In our post-Covid world, a sport that has been around since 1965 exploded in popularity. Pickleball saw its participation grow over 300 percent in the past few years. Why? It has a low stakes entry point: Equipment to get started is cheap, the court is smaller and less intimidating than tennis and the pickleball community as a whole is remarkably welcoming. But there has always been an undercurrent of tension with the tennis folks who see pickleball muscling in on their turf with a less refined, dumbed down game. As Dusty’s dad, a tennis snob, explains, “People say you can learn pickleball in an hour. That’s not a good thing.”
Dusty Boyd’s storyline is based on the real-life experience of writer Sean Clements, who played competitive tennis when he was younger but found, after he took it up again years later, that his older body succumbed to one injury after another. It was his mother who suggested he take up the suddenly trendy, less physically taxing sport of pickleball. After some initial reluctance, Sean quickly fell in love with it. He also saw a great opportunity for comedy. “Coming from a tennis background and seeing how much animosity there was between the two camps, it felt like there really is a natural conflict and ways to put together characters who otherwise would not be interacting and have them find common ground.”
The first scene of Dusty playing doubles pickleball, paired up with Mary Steenburgen against two older women, may seem like a contrived Hollywood scenario — especially when the more mature women beat them badly and start trash talking Dusty. But I can attest that this is a 100-percent real scenario that happens every single day on courts across America. It happened to me early on and still does! Both Clements and director Josh Greenbaum had similar experiences when they first started playing.
Same goes for Johnson. Recalling a game he played when he was starting out with actor buddy Justin Long against two women in their seventies, he said, “They not only beat us, but they were talking trash the whole time. I was becoming Dusty. It was making me mad. This woman kept hitting it in the middle, and I’d miss and she’d say, “Ooh, maybe think about moving faster.” And I would be like, you need to cool it, girl!”
That’s what told me this flick was on the right track. Everyone involved seemed to have a real affinity for the game. It was made by folks who really love it and that authenticity shines through.
The earlier recreational play scenes successfully capture the community aspect of it all. Greenbaum wanted to highlight what he experienced when he tried the game for the first time. “I loved it!” he says. “So many age groups and walks of life and a very welcoming community.”
Now let’s talk about the realism of the pickleball action. Johnson is supposed to be terrible at first, but his playing partners Steenburgen, Cleo King and the late Lynn Marie Stewart all played admirably on the screen.
The big game at the end looks terrific, too. Greenbaum said he and his DP “studied Rocky and Raging Bull to find the cinematic language to shoot that final match.” Advanced pickleballers may quibble at the leisurely pace of the volley battle during the final point, but I think it fit both characters’ supposed skill level in the moment.
Now was it all movie magic, or could the cast really play? Apple offered to let me find out for myself.
I met several cast members at City Pickle in NYC and got to watch their on-court gameplay. Before I get to that, though, there was one moment that I must share. It’s about how they did me dirty. Just as I was about to take the court with them, the publicist apologized and said the cast had one quick segment to do before mine. Not a problem. Until I started watching the young woman on the court with them. She could really play. And she looked so familiar. I asked who it was. “Oh, that’s Anna Leigh Waters.” My jaw dropped. She is widely acknowledged as the best pickleball player in the world. Pickleball’s Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Tom Brady. At only 19 years old! How the hell was I supposed to follow her?
From left: Aaron Chen, writer/pickleball instructor Steve Belanger, Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, at a promotional pickleball game organized by Apple for its new sports movie, The Dink.
Courtesy
When I finally walked on the court and met the cast, I apologized that they were in for quite a letdown. Waters is the No. 1 ranked player in the world. I’m not even the No. 1 ranked player in my own house (my college-aged son is also a certified instructor and a much stronger player).
Then we started and it was clear from the jump that they could all legitimately play the game. Steenburgen, who claims to still be a beginner, more than held her own and would do great even in my advanced beginner classes. She could handle dinks — A soft, controlled shot that dies just behind the net — perfectly and had that confident placement with her shots that had our opponents on their heels. We agreed that this game was a great equalizer, in which talent and skill matter more than youth and athleticism. Anyone who can master pace and nuance on the court can easily overcome the “bangers” who only hit hard and have no strategy. As her son said when he gifted her her first paddle, “Mom, I’ve been beaten by people older than you!”
Aaron Chen, who excels as Dusty’s sidekick, has some real skills, too. He also had the benefit of youth on his side. It isn’t everything in this game, but his quickness meant he could get to a lot more shots than Mary and I could. Though he doesn’t play in the movie, he claims to be quite active on the underground PB circuit in Brooklyn, which sounds way cooler than when I tell my wife I’m going to a tournament set up by Dory from Ronkonkoma. Granted, he was the cast’s “bad boy” (Johnson’s words, not mine).
Speaking of Jake Johnson, his natural athleticism was apparent (far more than when he tried to pull off a burpee in New Girl). He brought solid skills to the court and I recognized his PB passion as soon as we started hitting. He had clearly learned a lot from the world class tennis and pickleball trainers he worked with before shooting. His footwork was solid and he hit every shot with purpose. I was partnered with Mary and at one point he turned to his partner Aaron and encouraged him “Let’s bring some heat to the pro.” Which is kind of funny after they’d just played with Waters, but they did spice it up a little bit. I never let him get the best of me during our short session, but I would love to get him on the court for a real match based on the skill set and fiery intensity I saw.
So for those pickleballers out there who were afraid this movie might make fun of us, fear not. Everyone was adamant that the sport be treated with an irreverent respect that most of us bring to the court on a daily basis. And for the non-pickleball folks out there, don’t worry, they’ve crafted a fun little flick that’s accessible to everyone (much like the game of Pickleball itself!) and it has way more heart than a silly sports movie should.
