THE DINK (2026)

Starring Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Andy Roddick, Ben Stiller, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Aaron Chen, Martin Kove, Christine Taylor, John McEnroe, Lynne Marie Stewart, Cayden Romero, River Beier, Robert Rebetsky, Boone Nelson, Nathan Blair, Indiana Elle, Cooper Woestendick, Don Lake, Wayne Wilderson and Lennon Parham.

Screenplay by Sean Clements.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum.

Distributed by Apple Original Films. 102 minutes. Rated PG-13.

It was probably inevitable that eventually somebody would make a film about pickleball. After all, the game has become almost shockingly ubiquitous amongst people of a certain age and body type – sort of like tennis, but without the hard work, talent and athleticism. And yes, I say that affectionately as someone who is absolutely in the pickleball demographic, even if I’ve never actually played a game.

Also, it should be of no surprise that one of the costars and main producers of the film is Ben Stiller, who already has a history of pseudo-sports films with Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. I suppose eventually they will get around to making films about tetherball, wiffle ball and badminton.  

The Dink takes a look at its subject matter with a mix of proper irreverence and true fondness. Sure, it plays with most of the quickly arising clichés of pickleball – most of the players skew older and aren’t exactly in peak athletic condition, many of them take the game far more seriously than the game itself seems to require, and most of the true tennis players who appear in the film tend to look down on it.

Hell, even the title points out the basic difference between the sport (tennis) and the game (pickleball). A dink is a soft shot lobbed into the opponent’s non-volley zone. As The Dink points out several times in dialogue, sometimes a soft touch is preferable to a hard drive. Well, at least in pickleball.

Still, the game itself is ultimately secondary. Oh sure, they show lots of people who are very into pickleball, and most of them are probably a bit too competitive for their own good; however, The Dink shows pickleball more as a social construct than a serious athletic pursuit. In the end, the relationships made on the court are more important than the actual games.

Which is actually a slightly nuanced viewpoint for a film that is more than a bit cartoonish in most other ways.

Jake Johnson plays Dusty Boyd, a former tennis child prodigy whose career was brought to a premature end when he shattered his wrist during his first major tournament against future tennis champion Andy Roddick. Roddick good-naturedly plays himself in the current day as Dusty’s unwitting nemesis.

Decades later, Dusty is reduced to teaching kids to play tennis (and mostly boring them with stories of the past) at his father’s tennis club. Chuck Boyd (Ed Harris) had also been his tennis coach back in the day and has always been overbearing and harsh with his son – frequently berating him and showing his disappointment in what he has become.

And frankly, while Ed Harris is never less than interesting as an actor, he’s probably far too skilled to be stuck playing such a hackneyed role.

Chuck also sees his club as being in the middle of an existential crisis – suddenly more people want to learn to play pickleball than the actual sport of tennis. Chuck sees pickleball as an affront to the sport he loves, so he is fighting the pressure to open more of the club over to pickleball. So he sets up a tennis match. If his son, who hasn’t been in a tournament in over 20 years, beats the overzealous pickleball fan Skip (Patton Oswalt) there will be no more pickleball there. And if Skip wins, they will add more pickleball courts and fix the two already there.

Because, yeah, that happens.

Of course, Dusty hurts his wrist again when trying to prove he is able to do the match. And – irony alert – the eccentric doctor Chuck sends him to (played by Stiller) suggests an effective way to help his wrist heal in time for the tournament is to take up… pickleball. Dusty knows Chuck is already looking at replacing him, so he bites the bullet and goes to learn pickleball.

And – further irony, or at least a really big coincidence – Dusty is teamed up with Candace (Mary Steenburgen), an older woman he had mocked mercilessly for playing pickleball at the club earlier in the film. However, even though he has to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing the game – and all of his tennis skills are slight handicaps in this new game – he actually comes to really like pickleball and starts an odd couple friendship with Candace.

Steenburgen puts the heart, warmth and humanity into this often-cartoonish story and the tentative friendship between Dusty and Candace grounds the film and makes it better than you might expect.

With her, Dusty becomes a more open, sharing guy, even if he is still rather neurotic and a bit of a loser. However, she opens his eyes to a wider world – one out from under the thumb of his dad and his history. One that can include friendship, self-confidence, and yes, even pickleball.

It reaches a point where Dusty doesn’t even care about the match and hopes that his father sees the light that pickleball may be the wave of the future.  It leads to a revised match – between Dusty and Roddick – for the future of the club.

If you don’t know where this is going, you’re not trying very hard. And yet the climax is a bit anticlimactic because the true trick shot of The Dink is in showing how relationships are more important than any game. (Or sport….)  

The Dink may not be a great film, and it certainly isn’t a deep one, but it’s pleasant, good‑natured, and surprisingly heartfelt when it leans into connections rather than games. It’s a movie that understands pickleball is a little silly, tennis is a little snobbish, and life is mostly about the people you meet along the way. And it might remind you that sometimes the soft shot really is the smarter play.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2026 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: July 22, 2026.