(Photo courtesy of Apple TV)
Written by Colleen Bement, Editor and Pickleball Fanatic
Lately, there are few sounds in America more unavoidable than the pop-pop-pop of pickleball. It echoes across parks, retirement communities, and gyms. Pickleball players love it. Tennis players hate it, and the divide is growing as tennis courts are being converted to dinking playgrounds. It is the fastest growing sport in America and at this point, most everyone knows someone who plays it. Now Apple TV has joined in the craze with its upcoming film The Dink coming out July 24th.
At the center of The Dink is Dusty Boyd, played by Jake Johnson (known for New Girl), a washed-up former tennis prodigy whose glory days are long over. Bitter and frustrated, he spends his days coaching kids at a suburban country club run by his father Chuck, played by Ed Harris. Dusty absolutely hates Pickleball. Desperate for his father’s approval, he joins the anti-pickleball crusade. However, when an old injury flares up and ruins his ability to play tennis, Dusty turns to pickleball for rehab. Here he meets an upbeat partner named Candace (Mary Steenburgen), and he shockingly discovers a love for the game. Dusty is ultimately forced to face his past athletic failures and play the sport he swore off to save the country club and win his father’s affection.
And honestly, this tracks perfectly with real life. Because pickleball has become so incredibly popular with both the younger and older generations, it is kind of an equalizer of sports. The running joke is when a 20-something player shows up to the court to face a 60-something player with knee braces, it will be the kid who will have to work hard for the win. The sport looks deceptively simple until players start dropping dinks that die on the other side of the net. Older players tend to be the secret assassins of the pickleball world. They don’t move fast. They don’t need to. They know angles, and they know patience.
Apple TV has a hit on their hands that will tap into the popularity of Pickleball. The cast is stacked like an experienced team looking for the advantage in a game. Alongside Johnson and Steenburgen, the film features Ben Stiller, who also serves as a primary producer, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Christine Taylor, and Aaron Chen. Oh, and then there’s the tennis royalty! Andy Roddick appears as Dusty’s childhood nemesis, while John McEnroe reportedly shows up as well, which feels dangerously appropriate. If there’s one human being genetically engineered to yell about racket sports, it’s McEnroe.
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