Shannon was made to play bad guys, which he has done in almost everything I've seen him in. If he's not villainous he's usually in some abstracted area of dubious martyrdom. A notable exception is exemplified by Elvis and Nixon, a straight up comedy, that is a good example of this excellent actors range.
Here he is playing a consumate parental monster, and that's what this thing is about, not basketball. The focus is just not centralized on court combat. There are a number of overblown clichés in that regard and an overabundance of mixed racial conflicts and love affairs to sledgehammer us with we are all one big happy family, in love and in war.
But this is about Shannon , his wildly out of control gambling. There's the locus of this movie about a one man demolition squad to ruin an entire family. Even after making arrangements , by mortgaging or selling off his long suffering wife's assets to cover a large 6 figure debt, with three full sets of menacing bookies that have already injured him, he then injurs his star player son to keep him out of the action so he can make another huge bet against his kids team.
The denouement becomes predictable and is fulfilled. And 'good" triumphs, but it's soured as the bad daddy is led away by his unsavory creditors to an implied ending reminiscent of Lefty in Donnie Brasco, which by the way, in 'real' life was not the one held responsible for the infiltration.
I liked this thing because I like M. Shannon's work. He usually plays some variation of himself. That much is inescapable, the intensity , the ferocious looks that move from handsome to terrifying with a blink. He's more then a one trick pony though. But his one major trick, and the first time I saw it was in Until the Devil Knows You're Dead. Is the main propellant that is the wind in his careers sails.
It works for me. He has a lot of company in this regard, and since in this era of disease and paranoia and hyper automation and hyperinflation we are all isolated and have nothing left but electronically deployed images to amuse us, these are now are cyber buddies, our remote billionaire pals who wouldn't spit on us if we were on fire, which most of us are.
So if you like an actress or actor, keep watching and send them sailing into their mansions and yachts and vast holdings, that's the modern idea of friendship fot the most part.
