Blu-ray Review – The Sporting Club

Even by "New Hollywood" standards, 1971's "The Sporting Club" is an incredibly bizarre feature. An adaptation of a Thomas McGuane novel, the material has been realized for the screen by Lorenzo Semple Jr., best known for his campy interests, helping to shape 1966's "Batman" and 1976's "King Kong." The writer's impishness is in full display with the picture, which examines the panic of WASP-y types dealing with counterculture hellraisers and the true influence of their found fathers, inspiring a war of violence and psychological breakdowns. "The Sporting Club" isn't an easy movie to appreciate, with choppy editing and limited storytelling restraining the dramatic potential of the endeavor. However, the overall vibe of madness is something to behold at times, giving the effort some surges of wild behavior and dark encounters, making the film more of a curiosity than a stunning summation of insane white people and their invented problems. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com