Football teams are always looking for an edge. This Oscar season, Paramount may have found one in David Corenswet.
The New York Giants took John Tuggle with the 335th pick of the 1983 NFL Draft and that’s how the running back from California became “Mr. Irrelevant,” the nickname given to the final player selected each year. It’s also the title of a movie that could put Corenswet squarely in the awards conversation, if it becomes the kind of crowd-pleasing box-office hit that Hollywood can’t ignore.
Earlier this week, “Mr. Irrelevant” screened at the New York Sports Legend Tastemaker, hosted by former Giants quarterback Phil Simms. Giants icons Leonard Marshall, Bill Ard and Amani Toomer were in attendance, who all played alongside Tuggle, who spent one season in the NFL. Also on hand were director Jonathan Levine and cast members Corenswet, Isabel May, who plays Tuggle’s wife, Katie; David Krumholtz, who plays Tuggle’s driver, Whitey; and Michael Shannon, who portrays legendary Giants coach Bill Parcells. Simms moderated a post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers.
Michael Shannon, left, Leonard Marshall, Jonathan Levine, David Corenswet and Phil Simms at the “Mr. Irrelevant” New York Special Screening.
Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
I went in bracing for a generic sports movie, but came out reaching for a tissue box. That emotional reaction is the film’s biggest Oscar asset.
Corenswet plays Tuggle from the draft’s aftermath through his unlikely rise to the Giants’ 53-man roster, where he played all 16 games and was named the team’s special teams player of the year. And then, during the 1984 offseason, Tuggle, only 23 at the time, learns that he has angiosarcoma, a rare cancer of the blood vessels. What Corenswet does with that arc is why we’re having an Oscar discussion.
The first half runs on pure swagger and charisma as Corenswet plays Tuggle as a kid who knows he belongs, even when everyone decides he doesn’t. Then that confidence is dismantled piece by piece when the body that got him onto the field begins to fail him. The way Corenswet plays the denial and the grief, along with the emotional progression, is painfully human. By the end, he is essentially going full-on Hilary Swank in “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), and the audience’s tear ducts won’t stand a chance.
The apt comparison everyone will reach for is “The Blind Side” (2009). Interestingly, John Lee Hancock’s 2009 hit opens with Lawrence Taylor snapping Joe Theismann’s leg on “Monday Night Football” in Nov. 1985. Taylor was one of Parcells’ linebackers, and Tuggle, who was still on the injured list that season while fighting for his life, was also a Parcells player.
“The Blind Side” went on to gross more than $255 million domestically and, against anyone’s expectations, earned a best picture nom. Sandra Bullock won best actress. The movie became a phenomenon at church groups, sports bars and families turning to the multiplex for a weekend outing. “Mr. Irrelevant” is built for that same audience.
The film was shot in Australia for roughly $30 million and marks the first theatrical release from Skydance Sports’ partnership with the NFL. That relationship gives an enormous built-in audience and an institution with a vested interest in getting people into theaters.
And in a year increasingly crowded with potential crowd-pleasers — from “Michael” to “I Play Rocky” — every studio is looking for this season’s “American Sniper.”
And while he’ll return to the suit for “Man of Tomorrow,” due in July 2027, “Mr. Irrelevant” shows what Corenswet can do when he isn’t protected by a superhero costume.
The Oscars love sprawling biopics, underdogs and triumphant stories in which seemingly insurmountable obstacles are eventually overcome. Those ingredients have powered the sports genre since cinema’s earliest days. But some of the best sports movies have been ignored entirely, including Penny Marshall’s delightful women’s baseball comedy “A League of Their Own” and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s criminally underappreciated debut “Love & Basketball.” Even Steve James’ “Hoop Dreams” was infamously overlooked in the documentary feature race, while “Hoosiers” somehow went completely unnoticed.
The acting in some of these sports films has been somewhat kinder.
David Corenswet as John Tuggle and Isabel May as Katie in “Mr. Irrelevant”
Sarah Enticknap
“Mr. Irrelevant” will open on Christmas Day against an absurdly formidable lineup: “Avengers: Doomsday,” “Dune: Part Three” and a new “Jumanji.” That’s David (pun intended) taking on Goliath, Dr. Doom, Paul Atreides and the Rock. But if the movie becomes the film families choose to see over the holidays — and the one they tell their friends about afterward — its awards prospects could change quickly, especially with Oscar ballots going out soon after the holidays.
Tuggle spent one NFL season proving the league wrong about what he could contribute. Now Corenswet has until Oscar nominations morning to prove it to the industry.
This week’s updated predictions are below.
