The premise of The Senior would probably be tossed out at every studio at being totally ludicrous. But the fact is this new film about 59 year old construction boss Mike Flynt who went back to his alma mater Sui Ross State University in Texas to finish his senior year and try out for the college football team and make NCAA history is true. It really happened, and that fact would be enough to make it a worthwhile underdog sports movie, but it is actually so much more.
Michael Chiklis is perfectly cast as Flynt, a man happily married to wife Eileen (Mary Stuart Masterson), content in his career, but still living with one deep regret that he never finished his senior year as middle linebacker and captain on the Lobos team after getting kicked out for breaking the nose of another student. He has issues like that, and a tough childhood, but a simple mistake lived with him forever. This movie, directed by Rod Lurie (The Outpost, The Contender, The Last Castle) and written by Robert Eisele (The Great Debaters), is that story about a guy, confronting his past, who tries to make up for lost time, go back to his biggest regret so that he can go forward for the rest of his life. It is also about accepting and forgiving his own abusive father’s mistakes and correcting the ones he has made with his son. In other words, The Senior is about life.
And so in 2007 Flynt improbably goes back in time, convinces the coach Sam Weston (a fine Rob Corddry) to let him legitimately try out for the team as a senior, despite the obvious reservations. No one this age has ever played college football, and Lurie effectively uses every angle in the sports movie playbook to show the grueling task at hand as he goes through practice, being called “grandpa” by teammates, and determined to actually get to play in a real game. That is the suspense factor here. Will Mike actually get to play, or is the threat of injury too great to take the risk on him?
In between all the football stuff we see his home life, his relationship with a wife who understands this is something he must do, his constant urging his son Micah (Brandon Flynn) to follow in his footsteps not the ones he is following, and flashbacks to the younger days with an overbearing father and his time on the team in 1970, 37 years earlier (Shawn Patrick Clifford plays the younger Mike).
There is no shortage of the cliches familiar to the genre but here in this engaging and winning tale they all seem just fine. Why not? It’s real, and at the time made Mike a media star with even national TV coverage on Good Morning America. It would be hard to find a better choice for the role than Chiklis who looks and feels like the kind of guy who could put himself through the ringer and come out still standing on the other end. We root for this guy all the way. The rest of the cast including Masterson are also up to the task,
The independently made movie, like the story it tells, has had an upward climb just to get made and finally released after two years, but through faith-based distributor Angel Studios it hits theatres today and is well worth a visit if you feel the need in these troubling times to find some genuine human inspiration.
Producers are Mark Ciardi (who is responsible for some of the best in the sports genre including The Rookie, Million Dollar Arm, Miracle, Invincible, and many more), Campbell McInnes, Justin Baldoni, and Andrew Calof.
Title: The Senior
Distributor: Angel Studios
Release Date: September 19, 2025
Director: Rod Lurie
Screenplay: Robert Eisele
Cast: Michael Chiklis, Mary Stuart Masterson, Brandon Flynn, James Badge Dale, Rob Corddry, Shawn Patrick Clifford
Rating: PG