An immersive film essay on volatile tennis legend John McEnroe. This story follows McEnroe at the height of his glorious career as world champion, documenting his intense strive for perfection, his frustrations, and the hardest loss of his career at the 1984 Roland-Garros French Open.
What lingers, when this movie is done, are not the regular rallies, during which we survey the whole court, but those moments when we focus on McEnroe alone — on the dancing shuffle of his feet as he bobs and races for a return. Swap the sneakers for tap shoes and the dusty clay for a mirrored floor, and we could be watching Fred without Ginger, lost in the delirium of his art.
Faraut is able to conflate the cinema’s quixotic obsession with reality with the athlete’s similarly impossible dream of perfection. In its own playful way, his film celebrates the beautiful folly of both pursuits.
Spry and playful at times, pedantic and ponderously repetitive at others, the film is French down to its sweaty tennis socks and ultimately a touch too self-satisfied in its clever unconventionality.
What on paper might be a standard sporting bio-doc, largely relevant only to tennis aficionados or fans of John McEnroe at the height of his powers, instead becomes a lovely meditation on time and movement, dedication and obsession, image and perception.
Director Julien Faraut, who oversees the French Sport Institute’s 16mm film collection, showcases masterful command of the documentary form. His insightful, entertaining and often humorous film will appeal to fans of McEnroe, tennis and sport in general.
In The Realm of Perfection is in essence about that most slippery of topics: the beauty of the game. Sport might tell the truth, but perhaps only cinema can capture it.
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Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
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IndieWire by David Ehrlich
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Variety by Jessica Kiang
Slant Magazine by Josh Wise
Screen International by Nikki Baughan
Movie Nation by Roger Moore
The Film Stage by Rory O'Connor
The New York Times by Wesley Morris