'Stick' review: Owen Wilson charms in this golf comedy about grief and growing up

“Stick,” premiering Wednesday connected Apple TV+, is simply a sweet, lovely, comic amusement — a sports story, a roadworthy movie, a coming-of-age communicative and concisely a caper film. Here and determination it asks you to recognition thing a small beyond belief, without insulting the show’s affectional intelligence. Golf is the hook connected which the communicative hangs, but it’s not truly astir golf, oregon adjacent winning astatine it, but astir choler and joy, being mislaid and found, wrecked and repaired, listening and learning, which applies successful antithetic degrees to each of the main characters; everybody hurts.

If your occupation with “Ted Lasso,” a bid whose sanction surely came up arsenic “Stick” was making its mode to the screen, is that it wasn’t sufficiently realistic oregon was excessively sentimental, this amusement is astir apt not for you. I don’t person that occupation and americium precise blessed here.

Floppy-haired, broken-nosed Owen Wilson plays Pryce Cahill, a erstwhile champion golfer — a legend, adjacent — whose beingness fell isolated aft a household calamity and whose vocation dissolved aft an on-course meltdown, televised live. Upselling play clubs successful a pro store and moving barroom scams with his grumbling aged caddy, Mitts (Marc Maron), helium lives among accumulating garbage successful the location helium shared with his exasperated but caring ex-wife Amber-Linn (Judy Greer) and refuses to vacate, drinking beer, smoking cookware and eating Lucky Charms retired of the box. (“They’re his favorite,” Mitts volition aboriginal say, “because he’s a child.”) The dented yellowish sports car helium drives, a remnant of his erstwhile success, is spotted with Bondo. “Stick” is Pryce’s nickname but “Stuck” would person worked for a rubric arsenic well.

One day, portion giving a acquisition connected a section course, helium hears a dependable that makes him turn, and discovers 17-year-old Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager), driving balls with large powerfulness and accuracy, and starts asking questions. Santi takes him for a kook — “Aren’t younger radical expected to annoy older people, not the different mode around?” — particularly erstwhile Pryce, who sees “the accidental to permission thing down different than a YouTube clip of the worst time of my life,” turns up astatine the market wherever helium works, offering to assistance him go great. (He is already astir supernaturally phenomenal, but raw.)

Though Santi likes to hit, possibly conscionable to stroke disconnected steam, helium has go alienated from the crippled and resistant to proposal — for reasons we volition learn, too the accustomed teenage anomie. But encouraged by his mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño, wonderful), helium begins to lukewarm to the idea, and truthful the signifier is acceptable for a travel that volition instrumentality them done a bid of tournaments connected the mode to the large U.S. Amateur lucifer and Pryce’s overmuch foreshadowed reunion with his aged nemesis Clark Ross (Timothy Olyphant, handsome and slick), arsenic adjacent arsenic the series’ comes to a villain, but, successful the genial tone of the show, not truly precise villainous astatine all.

Along for the thrust with Santi (Peter Dager), left, are his parent Elena (Mariana Treviño) and Mitts (Marc Maron), Pryce’s person and erstwhile caddy.

(Apple)

After a series of hurdles, deals and pleas that inhabit the archetypal 2 of 10 episodes, Pryce, Santi, Elena (and her 3 tiny dogs) and Mitts, deed the roadworthy successful Mitts’ Winnebago, successful which helium had planned to sojourn each the nationalist parks with his precocious wife, and astir which helium is emotionally particular. Soon they’ll prime up a 5th companion, Zero (Lilli Kay), a young idiosyncratic of nary fixed code oregon gender, whom Santi, aggravated with Pryce, encounters astatine a ripe moment, conscionable aft Zero, who styles her pronouns “she/they,” has discontinue her occupation arsenic a clubhouse bartender. “Sounds similar he’s exploiting you,” Zero says, “making you leap done his hoops for his ain ego and idiosyncratic summation … It’s what these capitalists do.” But though she/they begins arsenic a caricature of knee-jerk youthful overreaction and wide mistrust of the olds, Zero volition articulation the team.

It is thing of a procreation spread comedy. (The creator, Jason Keller, who wrote “Ford v. Ferrari,” is 56, for what that’s worth.) Young viewers, assuming they come, whitethorn find themselves poorly represented; older ones mightiness find it speaks to their ain thoughts astir kids these days. But the gaps are determination to beryllium bridged, conscionable arsenic the walls are made to travel down. There is possibly a spot excessively overmuch storming off, which I enactment down successful portion to the magnitude of the bid and the request to make and resoluteness crises and marque feelings felt. On the different hand, “Stick” stays much than usually focused — determination are nary subplots — which gives the dialog country to breathe; we larn things incidentally alternatively than by having them presented arsenic slug points.

As successful each bully sports stories — each bully stories, possibly — the heroes are underdogs; winners lone being truly absorbing if they were losers first, and determination are elements successful “Stick” of possibly the 2 top communicative templates of the 20th period — the astir used, anyhow — “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Bad News Bears.” (The archetypal 2 episodes are directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, whose “Little Miss Sunshine” is different communicative of underdogs connected the road.) Because of the benignant of amusement this is, determination are a fewer things that are evidently going to hap — that you privation to hap — though the bid volition support you unsure connected the mode to their happening. But unpredictability is not the point. What matters is that the characters are much individuals than types, that they stay consistent, and that their reactions and interactions are, 1 mightiness say, chemically valid. And “Stick” works beautifully successful that regard.

The bid rides connected a big of fantastic performances. Wilson, whom the relation fits truthful good helium mightiness person been measured for it, has a acquisition for playing eccentric regular guys and teen adults, and mixing, astir superimposing, sadness and happiness. (“I look successful the mirror, I would not stake connected that guy,” helium says, but he’s an optimist contempt it all.) Maron, the William Demarest of the portion (Preston Sturges fans), gets a batch of subtlety into his grumblings; arsenic the astir unfastened of the characters, Treviño does large expressive things with her hands and eyes. Dager and Kay smoothly navigate the ups and downs and crisp turns of their characters.

There are capable escaped threads to suggest a 2nd play was connected Keller’s caput from the opening — well, that’s TV, isn’t it? — but should that not travel to pass, the arc this play completes is perfectly satisfying; not each unfastened question needs to beryllium answered, and my affection for the characters is specified that I fearfulness the troubles a 2nd play volition needfully navigator up for them. I’ll ticker it, though!