| Lady Ballers | |
| Director: | Jeremy Boreing |
| Cinematography: | Kristopher Kimlin |
| Editing: | Jared Bently |
| Studio: | Bonfire Legend |
| Distributor: | The Daily Wire |
| Runtime: | 110 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Lady Ballers is a 2023 American sports comedy film starring, directed and co-written by Jeremy Boreing, co-CEO of conservative media company The Daily Wire.[1] It also stars Daniel Considine, David Cone, Tyler Fischer and Daily Wire hosts Jake and Blain Crain. Boreing plays a down-on-his-luck-coach who will do anything to win, even bring his old male basketball team together to compete in women's sports.
The film has cameos from Daily Wire contributors and other prominent right-wing figures. Senator Ted Cruz and former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines both made cameo appearances as themselves.[2] [3] Daily Wires Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavan, Brett Cooper and Jordan Peterson all make appearances. The film is the debut of Billie Rae Brandt and Rosie Seraphine Harper.
In 2008, coach Rob Gibson leads his high school boys' basketball team to victory in a third back-to-back state championship in Nashville. Fifteen years later, Rob finds himself in the midst of a divorce and he is fired from his coaching position. Desperate, Rob accepts a job at a drag queen restaurant where he finds his former star point guard, Alex Cruise, also working. Rob begins coaching Alex to compete in a track and field competition for money. After Alex is mistakenly believed to be transgender, Rob convinces Alex to compete in the women's competition. Alex easily wins every event, gaining the attention of local reporter, Gwen Wilde, who convinces them to work with her as a means to become famous.
Rob and Alex reassemble their championship basketball team to compete in a women's basketball league as transgender athletes. Initially skeptical, the team is convinced of the plan by Rob's 8-year-old daughter after she explains gender identity concepts with them. The Lady Ballers dominate their opponents, quickly gaining celebrity status. Gwen comes on to Rob sexually. Their newfound fame soon causes strife between the team and Rob begins to feel increasingly guilty as his actions strain his already fragile relationship with his disapproving ex-wife, and especially after his daughter tells him she wants to be a boy because boys are winners. However, he assures her girls are great at giving birth and taking care of men.
When Alex expresses to Rob that he is beginning to believe he is actually transgender, Rob affirms that if Alex needs help, he will support him in obtaining it by physical violence. Rob shares concerns with Gwen including that their actions are negatively affecting the female athletes. In response, an angry Gwen orchestrates a plan to put the Lady Ballers up against a team of African American men also claiming to be transgender.
The Lady Ballers find themselves badly losing at halftime and after Gwen attempts to kill Rob with a sniper rifle, he arranges for his daughter and a team of her friends to replace the Lady Ballers. The opposing team plays against the little girls lightheartedly, letting them pass to each other and lifting them up to slam dunk the ball, but still win by 400 points. Rob reconciles with his ex-wife and the Lady Ballers officially disband. Rob builds a rec center for little girls and its revealed Rob's ex-wife's hippie boyfriend is actually Matt Walsh, having orchestrated she get back with him for the "sake of the child."
In a post-credits scene, Rob is participating in talk therapy with Jordan Peterson.
The premise of Lady Ballers originated as a potential documentary in which men would pretend to be transgender and attempt to integrate women's sports, but The Daily Wire changed the concept to a fictional comedy after failing to find any men who would agree to undergo the necessary requirements for trans women to participate on women's teams.[4] An analysis of Meta's ad library found The Daily Wire had spent $1.6 million advertising Lady Ballers on Facebook and Instagram in the previous month.[5] The Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles, who appears in the film as a news anchor, told the American Family Association that "left-wing reviewers" who take issue with the film's assertion that untrained men could easily dominate professional women's sports "totally missed the point of the movie, which is no one cares about women's sports."[6]
Principal photography began in June 2023. The film was shot in Nashville, Tennessee. A casting organization advertised the movie as "a sports comedy film" with the working title Coach Miracle. Recruiter pitches included calls for people willing to dress in drag "as a visual gag." An extra told Nashville Scene that several peers voiced objection upon realizing the political nature of the film and The Daily Wires involvement in it. They were then escorted out of the building, where audience scenes were being filmed. The following day, props including a sign with the text "Baller Pride" and a transgender flag had been removed from the set. Casting recruiters eventually had to double the pay offered to extras to $300 a day. Belmont University canceled planned filming on its campus "because the production company has not fulfilled the requirements or provided the details that would have been necessary for us to proceed," according to a university statement.[7]
The film was released on December 1, 2023, on DailyWire+.[8]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 43%, with an average score of 5.7/10, based on seven reviews.[9]
Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times said that "pundits at the Daily Wire predicted that their first feature-length comedy, Lady Ballers, would trigger the left, and they weren't wrong."[10] Film Threat Benjamin Franz praised the film as a "surreal, farcical, cultural satire", adding that it "has a great big heart, and it has a great many moral lessons to provide us, the viewers".[11]
John Serba of Decider.com was reminded of the film Juwanna Mann, and said: "Lady Ballers is funny on occasion, but only unintentionally". He concludes it "isn't offensive as much as it's just depressing" and encourages audiences to "skip it".[12] Katelyn Burns of MSNBC accused the movie of "anti-trans propaganda", and alleged the film lied about transgender people's ability to compete in sports.[13] Mey Rude writing for gay magazine Out described the movie as "completely unfunny". She alleged that "It almost seems like the people who made the movie understand that if their premise was real, there would be real-life examples of groups of men like this taking over women’s sports. There aren’t."[14]