Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 10, 2021

Maybe Next Year is not a football documentary. It is instead a piercing gaze into sports fanaticism that, frankly, plays out in every other NFL city every Sunday, every year. But the focus here is on Eagles green and Philadelphia's (in)famous fan base. Rather than paint with a broad brush, the film looks at a handful of fans who approach and respond to the team and the games, the wins and the losses, and life itself from differing perspectives but bonded together by a shared passion for Eagles football. As a slice of life documentary it's an interesting aside and more so for its reveal of the human condition and less for recounting the Eagles' Super Bowl-winning 2017 season, which it does efficiently, if not generically (there's also a dedicated Blu-ray for that).

The Eagles' 13-3 2017 season is a framework in which the film explores several of Philadelphia's citizens, each of them passionate about football and all of them allowing their super-fandom to shape their lives in one way or the other. Even as they live in a city said to be of a “compromised self esteem” in the shadow of New York and its once-great stature as the nation’s center, it is perhaps longsuffering Eagles fans who most distinctly define what it means to live in the "City of Brotherly Love." While the film briefly explores several games in the regular season on the game-by-game basis, much of its emphasis falls on the three playoff games. But through the season's story audiences are introduced to several individuals who share in common ceaseless passion for the team. First is Shirley, a frequent caller to local sports talk radio shows and known as “The Soul” of the Eagles franchise. She worships the Lord but lives and breathes the Eagles. Jesse is raising an autistic son whom he hopes to groom into the world's preeminent Eagles fan while fighting to save his cancer-ridden fathers life, at least long enough for him to experience an Eagles Super Bowl victory. Bryant, an Eagles vlogger, has gained fame for his profane tirades in response to the team's fortunes. There are several others, too, each of them bringing a unique life perspective but the same green-blooded glorification of Eagle football to the film's larger story.

For Eagles fans, a super Bowl championship is the “holy grail” of fandom, it is said early in the film, and each of these fans treat it exactly as that. For them it is practically religion, but a religion more of stress than joy, more of hardship and headache than peace and joy. But they don't mind. Eagles football is their lifeblood, their essence, the defining characteristic that makes them who they are. They find, build, maintain, and grow in that identity. Eagles jerseys, hats, earrings, and decorations surround them. Director Kyle Thrash has certainly assembled a choice cross-section of Philly faithful from the most infamously unruly of fan bases (“a true Philadelphia fan learns to boo before he learns to speak") but for a larger collective known as "animalistic freaks," these are more or less down-to-Earth people who certainly wear their fandom on their sleeve and allow it to define who they are and command their lives, but the film takes time to explore the relatable humanity -- relatable whether one is an Eagle, football, or sports fan or not -- inside all of them.

The film is less interesting when it's dissecting the team's hot start or shutout finish, the Carson Wentz injury, or any other on-field component and more so when it slows down to peer into its characters lives, both on gameday and away from the television or stadium. Bryant, for example, thrives on camera tearing down the team in near violent tirades, but beyond that facade is a vulnerable virgin who worries about his life off the camera. But the film's more somber beats are countered by the sheer joy each of these individuals experience when the clock strikes zero and the Eagles win the Super Bowl. Of course, these scenes are juxtaposed with shots of Philly's notoriously rowdy fans causing mayhem and getting arrested. It's an interesting watch even if the same film could have been made in any NFL city that wins the Super Bowl.

Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber presents Maybe Next Year on Blu-ray with a well-rounded, nicely detailed, and colorful 1080p transfer. The digitally photographed film finds plenty of clarity and intricate definition on the high definition format, certainly not so much as would a higher end production -- digital or film -- but well within expectations and often exceeding them. Close-ups showcase well defined facial and clothing complexities and various city shots at street level are sharp and detailed (but do expect to spot some aliasing on broader overview cityscapes or flyovers of the football field, for example). Perhaps the image's greatest textural quality comes in the clarity with which viewers can absorb the various Eagles decorations, and some other accents, strewn about the film. Dense barrooms, cluttered bedrooms, Eagles man caves, and other locations filled with trinkets are defined to the point that viewers will feel as if part of the environment and in many cases pause to explore the odds and ends that clutter so many frames. Colors are balanced, certainly without the pop and pizzazz of more deliberately colorful fare but Eagles green and silver, skin tones, neon lights, urban grays, and other essential tones are well saturated and neutral in contrast. Black levels and flesh tones are strong. The image is free of dense noise and there are no debilitating encode shortcomings of note. The transfer looks very good in total.

Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Maybe Next Year's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is of good quality as it delivers a modestly engineered soundtrack about as well as can be expected. Musical width and clarity satisfy, the former taking full advantage of the channels afforded to it (even in the secondary 2.0 lossless track) while also making light use of the surrounds and subwoofer as well. Location din springs to life with enough detail and stage placement to help draw the listener into the various locales, whether packed barrooms or city street exteriors. Dialogue is the main sonic component here, though, and it's consistently center placed, detailed, and well prioritized for the duration.

Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Maybe Next Year contains one supplement: the film's Trailer (1080p, 2:21). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Maybe Next Year Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe Next Year is more a Documentary about rabid sports fans and the way sports impacts, shapes, and ultimately comes to define their existence -- including their perspectives on living and dying -- and less the story of the Eagles 2017 season Super Bowl run. These stories are not unique. For every Eagles fan there are literally fans of a dozen other NFL teams that have never experienced a Super Bowl win. But the film does capably explore sports fanaticism and what winning and losing truly means to the body, heart, mind, and soul. The Blu-ray is featureless beyond a trailer. Video and audio qualities are fine. Recommended for Eagles fans and anyone interested in the psychology of sports fandom.