‘Sweet Dreams’ is an earnest softball and addiction drama, starring Johnny Knoxville

A man comes to terms with his alcoholism and coaches a softball team, in this slight but winning VOD drama

Welcome back to Baseball Week, where I’m spending the week writing about baseball movies, and thank you for the positive response to all of the posts so far. 

Sweet Dreams is not, in fact, a baseball movie. It’s a softball movie. But beyond that, it’s an addiction movie. One featuring an intense, primarily successful dramatic turn from a man whom I’ve seen, over the years, get punched, tased,  electrocuted, and hit with all sorts of objects.

Yes, the film stars the now 53-year-old Johnny Knoxville, more than holding his own in a rare lead dramatic role. 

In Sweet Dreams, Knoxville plays Morris, a sometime director of music videos who has sunken deep into alcoholism, threatening his relationship with his beloved daughter. He’s sent to live in a sober living facility where he’s given the job of playing for and coaching the house’s long-moribund softball team. There’s even prize money at stake, which will prevent the foreclosure of the sober house. 

The movie especially thrives on the cast's camaraderie, mostly filled with semi-famous actors and comedians. Jay Mohr has aged into a decent character actor, while the guy in charge of the house is played by Mo Amer of the Netflix show Mo. Also on board are familiar faces like GaTa (from Lil Dickey’s show Dave), Bobby Lee (Carrie’s podcast cohost on It’s Just Like That), and, of all people, supermodel Kate Upton, the wife of future baseball Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. 

There are many cliches, especially since the prize money part essentially lifts the plot of UHF. But I was invested and won over by Morris’ journey and invested in his push for sobriety. It features one of the year’s best musical score moments when a late home run is scored with a riff that resembles what plays when Scott Hatteberg hits the homer in Moneyball. 

Sweet Dreams is available now on VOD platforms. 

Now, while doing a Baseball Week and looking for a new baseball movie to review, there wasn’t one, and I had to review a softball movie instead. That probably doesn’t say much good about the health of the baseball movie. But it appears there is a promising one on the way. 

It’s called Eephus, directed by film critic-turned-filmmaker Carson Lund, who made the film after a crowdfunding effort. It’s showing this week in Cannes as part of the Director’s Fortnight. It also has distribution through Film Constellation. 

Hollywood Reporter says the film “follows a men’s New England recreational baseball team as they play their final game on their longtime field before its planned demolition.” 

I’m unsure when we’ll see Eephus, but I’m intrigued.