Roger Sharpe (Mike Faist) is an aspiring writer and pinball enthusiast, though when he discovers that his favorite arcade pastime is illegal in New York and many other large metropolitan states, he sets out to change the public opinion on the game.  An antiquated law classifies it as a game of chance designed by the mob to steal children’s lunch money and instill a habit of gambling in their impressionable young minds.  What started out as research for a magazine article eventually developed into the idea for a whole book as Roger’s deep dive into the history of the game finds him traveling across the country to meet with the titans of the industry and prove to America that everything on the game board has a purpose and pinball is not about chance, but of choices. 

Written and directed by Austin and Meredith Bragg, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2022 before running the lower festival circuit and a limited theatrical release by Vertical Entertainment.  For most audiences, though, this light and poppy 95-minute biopic is readily accessible on Hulu.  It is an inoffensive little film that went largely underseen, possibly swallowed up in the glut of “the product is the IP” films that have oversaturated the market in the first half of 2023, but Pinball has a lot of heart behind it and is really highlighting a love of the game more than shilling for a specific brand. 

The film is framed around an older Roger (Dennis Boutsikaris) being interviewed for a documentary, and the story proper is told as the man recounts his youth and haunts the frame like one of Scrooge’s ghosts as he narrates over the action.  It is a slightly more interesting and involved approach than the standard voice-over narration that is a staple in this genre, and because it is framed as a documentary interview it allows Bousikaris to be fully self-aware as he mocks all the other genre tropes beating audiences to the punch to deride the film for staying well within the lines of expectations.  The problem with these breakaway scenes is two-fold.  First, and most egregiously, it allows for a terribly fragmented and sporadic script to go in front of the lens because as soon as the Braggs have written themselves into a corner or grown bored with a thread, they can hit the reset button and move on from there without consequence.  The second negative effect is that this pattern deflates the energy of the scene every time it cuts away, and since the characters are far more engaging than the interview segments it makes Pinball a far more tedious endeavor than it should be. 

The film shines when Faist is at the forefront of the film.  His goofy and affable nature makes the film easy to follow along with as he navigates the trials of unemployment, the big city, and the possibility of a new romance with Ellen (Crystal Reed) whom he meets on his way to an interview with GQ Magazine.  Admittedly, the film gets off to a rough start as it barrels forward with a clunky romantic plot, but after it is done setting everything up and Roger and Seth (Christopher Convery) – Ellen’s son from a previous marriage – begin to gel, it signals a new era for the relationship between Roger and Ellen and the film finally feels fun.  For much of the first act, the film is most comfortable when Roger is playing pinball, but eventually, as the hearing draws near and Roger is traveling the states, Ellen and Seth’s absence becomes noticeable.  Reed brings in some emotional stakes to beef up the narrative and Convery channels the same doe-eyed enthusiasm that Noah Jupe brought to Ford v Ferrari (2019), and the real fun of the film is when Roger is playing and investigating the game together with his new family.  It takes a long time before this romance plot is developed enough for audiences to invest in it, but in time it does, and it does help round out the plot of Pinball for what felt like a diversion at first.  Thankfully, the film never loses the fun aspect of the pinball scenes, and it becomes more of a case of dueling narratives as we begin to feel the impossible choice that Roger faces in the final act: pinball or family. 

With a larger budget, Pinball would have been able to afford a who’s who cast of character actors to fill out its ensemble and help put it more on people’s radar.  Instead, much of its budget went to the Spirtgum required to glue the distractingly fake mustache onto Faist’s face.  While the end credits montage will inform audiences that this facial hair was based on fact, it takes a long while before it becomes accepted as part of the scenery when watching the story at hand.  A few well-placed jokes at its expense do help matters, but it is impossible to talk about Pinball and not mention the ‘stache as if it were a character in its own right. 

While the cast of his GQ coworkers and the staff of the MAA do their best, Pinball is just not equipped to give them enough to really work with.  They all pass through the frame with a strange relationship and comfort with Roger right off the bat, and once they spur him off in the right direction for the plot they are shelved until needed again.  For a character that is supposed to be as odd-ball and ostracized as Roger is made out to be, the network he forms is hardly indicative of that and the narrative is riddled with convenience.   

Pinball, despite the advice that Roger receives at his GQ interview, plays it far too safe to really leave an impact.  It is not bad – Faist does find a way to elevate the material and weasel into the audience’s mind enough that we care about the ending – but it is not exceptionally good, new, or exciting either.  A paint-by-numbers biopic that thinks it is far funnier than it actually makes for a rough watch, but this type of empty-calorie filmmaking has seen worse and it does not overstay or drag on endlessly.  Faist’s Broadway roots shine through as he acts for the cheap seats, but eventually, audiences accept his wild mannerisms as just part of the character and the antics work themselves into the fabric of the film.  For being the debut feature for the Bragg’s, Pinball is well made and enjoyable, but it relies too heavily on what came before and the script finds itself getting lost in Roger’s story without a clear focus of where – or more aptly, how – it wants to go.  It struggles to find its voice or its purpose, but with time, this duo has the potential to be a pair to watch as they continue to sharpen their skills both behind the camera and on the page.