20 best sports movies to watch at home

Let’s face it: A lot of sports movies, especially the most famous ones, are pretty bad. Sports-loving moviegoers have been disappointed for decades by the adaptations of their favorite games on the big screen.

We are all enjoying Nintendo Switch Sports. Many sports seasons across the globe have begun or are fully underway. Now is the time to share our top picks for watching at home. That last part is key — there are quite a few great sports movies that won’t be included here because of their lack of availability on streaming platforms. But there’s plenty of good ones to enjoy across a variety of sports, including auto racing, basketball, and combat sports.

These are the 20 movies that we love and hope you enjoy.

You are born a champion

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

This is the sport: Brazilian jiu-jitsu

This is the movie:An ex-marine who rose to stardom during the MMA boom has the chance of a rematch.

What you need to watch:Sean Patrick Flanery stars as a writer and star. He is also a black belt at jiujitsu and this passion shows in the performance and script. It’s not perfect, but You are born a championThis is an underdog story with a low price tag. —Pete Volk

You should be watching:Hulu is available to stream

The Freshman

Image: Criterion Channel

This is the sport:Football

This is the movie: Harold Lloyd’s classic 1925 comedy follows his fresh-faced new student Harold Lamb, who wants nothing more than to be cool. What does it take to be cool? This is a great question, which has puzzled scientists for many millennia. Harold found the solution by joining the football team.

What you need to watch: A hilarious movie filled with some gags that don’t translate to the modern day and some that truly do (there’s a whistle-based gag in the football game that could still very much happen in real life), The Freshman is an early example of a sports movie and a standout movie from one of silent cinema’s great comedians. —PV

You should be watching:Accessible to stream via HBO Max or the Criterion Channel

Goon

Image: Alliance Films

This is the sport:Hockey

This is the movie: Many sports have specialized roles, but hockey is unique — many teams have enforcers, aka “goons,” who are basically there to strategically get into fights with opposing players. Goon Doug Glatt (Seann Williams Scott) is one example of such an enforcer. This story is about a sweet, but not very bright, young man who wins a fight against homophobic players after attending a football game. Based on the book, the movie was made. Goon: A True Story about a Strange Journey to Minor League HockeyThe book was written by Doug Smith and Adam Frattasio (on whom the Glatt character is basing).

What you need to watch: Scott’s affecting performance brings a lot of heart to what could have otherwise been a pretty flat character, and Goon Hits a perfect balance of comedy and drama in sports. —PV

You should be watching: Available to stream via Vudu and Pluto TV with adverts; also available on Kanopy and Hoopla with library cards

High Flying Bird

Image courtesy of Netflix

This is the sport:Basketball

This is the movie: Steven Soderbergh’s second movie shot on an iPhone (after Insane), High Flying Bird follows sports agent Ray Burke (André Holland), who looks to fight back against some of the power imbalances in sport by finding an opportunity for a rookie client (Melvin Gregg) during a labor dispute.

What you need to watch: High Flying Bird digs into some of the complicated dynamics on the business side of sports, and Soderbergh’s iPhone direction is paired well with a sharp script from Tarell Alvin McCraney (MoonlightHolland’s magnetic performance as a leader. —PV

You should be watching: Netflix is available to stream

Hoop Dreams

Image from Fine Line Features

This is the sport:Basketball

This is the movie: Steve James’ legendary 1994 documentary is one of the finest pieces of American nonfiction cinema, a detailed portrayal of two Black high school students in Chicago who aspire to make it to the NBA.

What you need to watch: Hoop Dreams This documentary is a true classic in American documentary filmmaking history. It uses a near impossible feat of success to highlight the inequalities in our society and culture. This is the movie you should watch if time allows. —PV

You should be watching:Accessible on HBO Max and Showtime as well the Criterion Channel. Plex offers streaming for no cost with ads

Image: Neon

This is the sport: Figure skating

This is the movie: 2017’s I, Tonya tells the true — and at the time, notorious — story of Tonya Harding, an ice skating prodigy from the wrong side of the tracks who became a tabloid sensation when she was implicated in a physical assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan in the lead-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics.

What you need to watch:Craig Gillespie, Director of the Film Institute walks an emotional tightrope. I, TonyaThis is a blend of biopic, mockumentary and tabloid sauce. It also includes broad comedy. FargoThe film is full of crime humor and is interwoven with incredible narration from Harding (a wonderful Margot Robbie). It’s a fun, wild ride, but it’s secretly dead serious and compassionate about the fact that white trash like Harding, surrounded by idiots and snobs and bullied by her single mom (Allison Janney, also great), never had a chance in the first place. —Oli Welsh

You should be watching: You can stream the show on Hulu or get it for free by getting a Kanopy library card.

Lagaan

Image: SET Pictures

This is the sport:Cricket

This is the movie:One British Army captain raises taxes to a village in India during drought. This is 1893. To resolve their dispute, the captain invites the residents to engage in high-stakes Cricket.

What you need to watch:Its 224-minute running time is Lagaan The movie has almost everything that you need in a movie. It includes a passionate underdog story with romance and exciting dance, as well as action sequences. Plus, it never hurts for a sports story to have a villain to root against, and there are few more wicked than Paul Blackthorne’s sadistic Captain Russell. —PV

You should be watching:Netflix is available to stream

Minding the Gap

Image: Hulu

This is the sport:Skateboarding

This is the movie: Bing Liu’s 2018 documentary follows him and his two best friends as they grow up in Rockford, Illinois, and share a bond through their love of skateboarding.

What you need to watch:This is a moving portrayal of teenage life and an eloquent depiction American toxic masculinity. It’s one of our favorite movies and it ranks high on our Hulu list. —PV

You should be watching:Hulu is available to stream

Moneyball

Sony Pictures Releasing

This is the sport:Statisticians of baseball or, more accurately, baseball

This is the movie:Based on a true story, the low-key and compelling drama of real life baseball tells about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a manager trying to rescue the Oakland Athletics. Beane ignores all the conventional wisdom and creates a team with overlooked players, based on statistics compiled by Peter Brand (Jonah Hill).

What you need to watch:It is probably the only drama in sports where the bean-counter plays the main role. This gives the story a unique feel. It sounds dry and it probably is. But master screenwriters Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, and Aaron Sorkin are skilled at describing the subject and selling it. The filmmaking skills of Sorkin is flawless, as is the support from Philip Seymour Hoffman. Bizarrely, there’s also a cameo from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who plays the team’s owner. —OW

You should be watching: You can stream Hulu or The Roku Channel for free, with ads.

Raging Bull

Photo by United Artists

This is the sport:Boxing

This is the movie: A 1980 biography of Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), a champion middleweight boxer of the 1940s and ’50s. Adapted from LaMotta’s own memoir, Raging Bull The viewer is taken on an edifying tour of LaMotta’s sporting and personal life. The film shows LaMotta at his best and post-boxing, as well as the brutality of the ring and the violence at home.

What you need to watch: Because, according to the American Film Institute, it’s the fourth-greatest American film of all time. Because it’s one of De Niro’s greatest performances, with a terrifying physicality. Because it’s a searing, tragic deconstruction of toxic masculinity. And because Scorsese’s filmmaking, powered by Michael Chapman’s black-and-white photography and Thelma Schoonmaker’s impressionistic editing, reaches a delirious intensity that will take your breath away, especially in the dumbfounding boxing scenes. —OW

You should be watching:Prime Video is available to stream

Rush

Universal Pictures

This is the sport: Formula One

This is the movie: Ron Howard’s Rush brings to life one of the great rivalries in Formula One history, showing the battle between playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and disciplined racing mastermind Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) for the 1976 World Championship.

What you need to watch: Hemsworth and Brühl are pitch perfect in their respective roles, and the racing scenes are terrific. The movie portrays the variety of personalities within sport and how they interact. —PV

You should be watching:Netflix is available to stream

Sanshiro Sugata

Image: Toho Company Ltd.

This is the sport:Judo and Jiu-jitsu

This is the movie: The legendary Akira Kurosawa’s directorial debut follows a stubborn and confident young man, Sanshiro, who learns judo and faces a challenger from a rival school.

What you need to watch: The earliest display of some of the directorial techniques that would carry Kurosawa’s name into history, Sanshiro Sugata This is a superb sports drama which captures both the danger and tension associated with combat sports. —PV

You should be watching:On Criterion Channel, and free on Plex with advertisements

Shaolin Soccer

Universe Entertainment Ltd.

This is the sport: Soccer and Shaolin kung fu

This is the movie:Stephen Chow stars and directs his Hong Kong comedy about a shaolin kung fur student. He meets Ng Man-tat, a former soccer player who is disgraced. In a thrilling, dramatic match for the title, Team Evil is faced off against Team Good, an opposing soccer team. —Toussaint Égan

What you need to watch:Chow has mastered the art of outrageous physical comedy and fist-pumping. It’s nearly impossible to go five minutes throughout its one-and-a-half-hour run time without being struck by a moment of ingenious non-sequitur comedy, be it impromptu Shaolin-themed karaoke cabaret, hilarious sight gags, or exhilarating action scenes. Shaolin SoccerThis combination combines the adrenaline of watching underdog sports dramas with the irrepressible frivolity of Looney Tunes cartoons.

You should be watching:Showtime streaming available

Strictly ballroom

Image: Ronin Films

This is the sport: Ballroom dancing

This is the movie:Scott Mercurio, the son of a ballroom-dancing family, is destined for greatness on Australia’s dance floor. However his flashy improvisations become too much and he ends up losing his partner. Shy Fran (Tara Morice) offers to replace her, and together they find something special — but the despotic conservatism of local ballroom impresario Barry Fife (Bill Hunter) stands in the way of their self-expression.

What you need to watch: Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 debut film is a dazzling, full-hearted crowd-pleaser, somehow blending the grotesque countercultural stylings of John Waters with classical upbeat sports drama and sequined pop spectacle. Luhrmann’s fairy dust turns caricatures into real people and finds the glamour in the disreputable, poor, and weird fringes of Australian society — and, of course, the dancing rules. —OW

You should be watching: Fubo TV and digital rentals available.

Speed Racer

Warner Bros. Pictures

This is the sport:Auto racing is a very fictional sport.

This is the movie: The Wachowskis’ 2008 adaptation of the manga and anime series stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Matthew Fox.

What you need to watch:The movie is vibrant and captures anime’s artistic spirit. It features thrilling animations and fast-paced racing scenes. Also, the sports drama aspect of the movie is excellent. It focuses on a family-owned race team that faces off against major business interests. It also imagines a better world, and who couldn’t use that from time to time? —PV

You should be watching:Kanopy is available to stream with a librarycard

Twilight

Image: Summit Entertainment

This is the sport:Baseball

This is the movie: TwilightIt’s a movie about teenage vampires that features a love triangle with a (sometimes shirtless) waswolf. But it’s also a great American baseball movie.

What you need to watch: Fight me if you must, but the film’s entire plot hinges on one very intense game of good ol’ American baseball! The volatile crack of the bat makes vampires so agile that they cannot play in thunderstorms. And during one fateful game — Bella mostly stands there in a cute ball cap, but the vampires run so fast they have motion blur — a rival vampire gets a whiff of Bella’s human scent and proceeds to hunt her for the rest of the film. Avenging this vampire’s death then becomes the plot of the next few films. Baseball’s power! Excellent movie. —Nicole Clark

You should be watching: Peacock is available to view or free of charge with ads on Tubi

Uncut Gems

Image: A24

This is the sport:A basketball fan?

This is the movie: The Safdie brothers’ 2019 masterpiece follows Howard Ratner, a jeweler and gambling addict who has one hell of a day.

What you need to watch:There is no movie that captures the excitement of attending a high-pressure sport event you are personally involved in better than this film. Most people think of that stake as fandom. For Howard, it’s his life. —PV

You should be watching:Netflix is available to stream

Warrior

Lionsgate image

This is the sport: MMA

This is the movie:Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, two brothers who are separated from one another, will be fighting in the same massive MMA event. Each has something to prove.

What you need to watch:Hardy, Edgerton and Frank Grillo are great as leads, with Jennifer Morrison and Nick Nolte playing supporting roles. And the action scenes in the film are riveting. Hollywood’s best-known sports genre, tournament dramas, is this one? —PV

You should be watching:Netflix is available to stream

The Wrestler

Image: Fox Searchlight Pictures

This is the sport:Professional

This is the movie: A bittersweet 2008 tale of washed-up wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke), who’s well past his hair-metal 1980s heyday but still wrestling in small promotions on the weekends while he scrabbles out a lonely trailer-park life. Cassidy is his new girlfriend (Marisa Tomei), and he seeks to reconnect with Evan Rachel Wood, his ex-girlfriend. He also contemplates an upcoming matchup with The Ayatollah.

What you need to watch: The Wrestler This film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, is shabby and tender. It’s also uncharacteristically naturalistic.Mama, I Requiem for Your Dreams!). The reason to watch it is Mickey Rourke, himself an ’80s heartthrob who went off the rails, who’s poignantly cast as the “broken-down piece of meat” Randy. It’s a moving performance that takes the film to places you both do and don’t expect, right up to its moving yet ambivalent final frames. —OW

You should be watching: On HBO Max, you can watch it live.