Tribeca Returns With An In-Person Fest For Its 21st Edition

If you’ve been on the planet for at least the last 30-40 years, chances are you know the name John McEnroe, whether or not you follow tennis. Love him or loathe him, there’s a reason the former World #1 Men’s Tennis Player has been the subject of multiple narrative and documentary films in the last decade. Despite, or because of his personality, McEnroe helped to transform the genteel sport in the late 1970s into one in which tennis players were suddenly rock stars. While the volatile man himself remains a fascinating public figure, Mr. You Can’t Be Serious, is still an enigma.

As the mental health struggles of athletes, in particular ones such as former Women’s Tennis #1 Naomi Osaka, get much-deserved attention, it’s perhaps an opportune time for the new documentary McEnroe, in which the subject – who has clearly done some work on himself via the “37 psychologists and psychiatrists, court-ordered and on my own” that he’s seen over the years –  looks to provide some insight into what compelled his ferocious intensity, on-court meltdowns, much-publicized fights with reporters and a tabloid-ready first marriage to Tatum O’Neal. His thoughtful pursuit is enhanced by interviews with, among others, wife Patty Smyth, brother Patrick McEnroe and two of McEnroe and O’Neal’s children. Fans looking to see highlights of the era won’t be disappointed since there is a lot of footage of McEnroe, particularly at Wimbledon, when “Superbrat”, as he was dubbed by the press, first came on the scene to try and challenge Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg. McEnroe recognized at his peak, when he reached the highest ranking and hadn’t lost a single match in 1984, that he should have been feeling “amazing” but instead “felt doomed”.

The single-mindedness and self-critical punishing that drove him came early, typified by his first or second grade report card that McEnroe’s mother shared with his current wife, singer Patty Smyth. Smyth relays that his teacher wrote, “John is too hard on himself. John was unsatisfied with his A minus.” Not surprisingly, that mentality originated with his parents. According to his brother Pat (also a former tennis player and now commentator), the oft-told family story is that when their father came home from law school and announced he’d finished second, his wife’s response was, “Who was first?”

Director Barney Douglas, following McEnroe over the course of a single night, has crafted a thoroughly compelling documentary. McEnroe is a welcome look at a public figure who identifies his biggest flaw as being “not very empathetic”, has struggled with anger and given a second chance as a man, husband and father, is trying to do a little better.