Went to see Concussion, the new Will Smith movie that wants you to fear and dread the NFL. The NFL… it lurks out there, waiting for you to speak out against it and then they COME FOR YOU!!!

This film is about the doctor who discovers (or thinks he discovers) why some retired NFL players are going crazy and dying young. It’s due to repetitive concussions due to whacking each other in the head hundreds of times. Of course, the NFL being the corporate monster they are, already knows about the problem and wants to silence him.

This is a pretty bad movie. Not because its about the idea of football being dangerous to your health but because its so overly melodramatic about football being dangerous to your health. Not every movie can (or should) be done in the serious and direct style of Spotlight (the movie about the reporters investigating the pedophilia problem in the Cathoic church) but comparing Concussion to Spotlight makes Concussion look like a ridiculously over-dramatic arms-in-the-air waving overindulgent Hollywood movie (because that’s what it is). It doesn’t think “just the facts” are enough – it has to turn it into a paranoia thriller.

For example, the movie basically suggests that the doctor’s wife miscarries because the NFL sent some goons to follow her around the Pennsylvania roads (Silkwood-style). Or that they send the FBI to shake down the doctor’s boss (when, as it turns out, in reality they did investigate the boss and that took place a few weeks before the doctor published his findings…. wouldn’t want reality to get in the way of a good Hollywood movie).

That said, Will Smith plays a character with an African accent and I can’t say if that accent is correct, but he sells it. He doesn’t drop the accent at any time. And, yes, he also plays the bad dialog with convictions – I don’t blame Will Smith for this mess (unless he had more say in the story and dialog).

I don’t have a huge stake in the NFL and football – I can usually give or take the sport. Ya’ll love it, go for it. But I can see a hit job when I see a hit job… and this movie really really wants you to hate the corporation and the game. And I’m sure there’s something to hate about both, but this movie uses a sledgehammer when a scalpel would have been better.

Score: 64