Get your tissues and sacrificial chip bowls ready; the best film of 2023 has finally graced the silver screen.
“80 for Brady” stars Jane Fonda as Trish, Sally Field as Betty, Rita Moreno as Maura and Lily Tomlin as Lou as they embark on an epic quest to see Tom Brady in Super Bowl LI. The four friends have kept up with Brady’s career since his debut – meeting up every game day to cheer on their quarterback and each other as they navigate love and loss and everything in between.
Though I strongly dislike Brady (Go Birds), I love this film. It truly has everything: Fonda as a fan-fiction writer, Field meeting Guy Fieri, Tomlin hallucinating and Moreno gambling with Billy Porter and Retta Sirleaf while high on edibles.
Sally Field meets Guy Fieri.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
As the stars have talked about in the press tour for this movie, there is something about female friendships that are necessary for our existence, and this is a testament to that. At one point in the film, Betty says to the group, “Isn’t that what friendship is? That we face the unknown together?” A truer sentence has never been uttered.
The writers of the film, Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, brilliantly capture what it is to be a girlie with your girlies. To have a group of friends who have your back through everything is a kind of love like no other, and I am so grateful to this film for showing that. The pair has also written the only high school movie that matters – “Booksmart,” so it is no surprise this movie hits along the same vein as that incredible film.
Tom Brady stars as himself in the film.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
I think films like “80 for Brady” are important. As women and even as college-aged people, we spend so long trying to retain our youth and live in the years where our bones don’t ache and where going out multiple nights in a row doesn’t seem like a chore – but what happens when that’s over? Getting old doesn’t have to be scary; things don’t have to change just because time has passed. You can still go on adventures with your three best friends, go after that one celebrity you have a parasocial relationship with and have a great time doing it.
The script is a tiny bit corny, but the cast itself is phenomenal. Come on though, what else would we expect from these highly decorated women? Both Fonda and Field have Emmys, Oscars and Grammys, the incredible Moreno is an EGOT winner and Tomlin only needs an Oscar to join her. On that topic, I have single-handedly been spearheading the “80 for Brady” Oscar campaign so Tomlin can also reach EGOT status. Sign my petition, link in bio.
The script is a tiny bit corny, but the cast itself is phenomenal.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
This movie really feels like a trip with friends – complete with a Dolly Parton girl-power song that I have been listening to at least once a day since seeing the film.
Gather up your girls and get to the theater ASAP. This is not a movie to miss.
