Peter Farrelly’s reign of terror continues

As we approach November we’re getting into the thick of awards season, and here is one film not to lose track of—I Play Rocky. It’s about Sylvester Stallone and the making of Rocky, a film and a role Stallone wrote for himself. Interestingly, the film does NOT involve Stallone himself, instead it comes from director Peter Farrelly and writer Peter Gamble, and it stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone.

A new trailer dropped yesterday, and yes, it looks cheesy as hell but in that exact way that audiences and the Academy love. To wit: I Play Rocky was a runner-up for the TIFF People’s Choice Award.

View this post on Instagram

I Play Rocky is very much not my bag, but I can see exactly how it will work for the Academy, and it will work two different ways. First, it’s a crowd-pleasing underdog story about an unlikely success story. People love those, generally. Second, it’s a film about filmmaking, and the Academy, particularly, finds it hard to resist films about films. So, while I am personally revolted by this trailer and by the fact that Green Book—one of the most embarrassing Best Picture winners of all time—bought Peter Farrelly a career renaissance, I do see how this film will succeed, both commercially and Oscarly. I’m 100% being a hater, but I do get how this works as an Oscar formula, I will not deny that.

Right now, with a couple months left in the calendar year, I’ve got I Play Rocky as a bubble film. It’s on the bubble for Best Picture and for Anthony Ippolito to bag a surprise Oscar nomination—surprise because this is his first big film role, and coincidentally, he previously played Al Pacino in The Offer, so now he just needs to play Robert De Niro in something and he’ll complete the Italian-American Icon trifecta. I do not have Peter Farrelly for Best Director on my bingo card because I think enough people have woken up from whatever glue-sniffing fever dream took place at the 2019 Oscars to realize Green Book is f-cking embarrassing. Nonetheless, if I Play Rocky turns into a commercial hit, that’s the kind of bump that pushes a bubble film into real contention. Peter Farrelly’s reign of terror continues.