Review: The Bronze

Melissa Rauch, The Other Girl from The Big Bang Theory—“Not Kaley Cuoco, not Blossom, the other girl!” has crafted herself a terrific lead role in Hope Ann Greggory, a foul-mouthed, emotionally stunted former Olympic gymnast. Still living at home with her postal worker father (the great character actor Gary Cole, from Veep and The Good Wife), Hope is half-coasting through life on her old glory as the only celebrity in her hometown of Amherst, Ohio. When her old coach dies she’s pushed into taking the reins of up-and-coming gymnast Maggie’s (Haley Lu Richardson) Olympic campaign. Scared this new girl will win the town’s heart, and she’ll truly have nothing to live for, Hope tries to sabotage Maggie at every turn while attempting to keep up the coaching facade. The Bronze has the scrappy, low-res, folksy appeal of an R-rated Napoleon Dynamite, which is both the insult and compliment it appears—the movie is relentlessly mean-spirited, but also very, very funny.