Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker

Last updated

Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker
Boom boom the world vs boris becker.png
Official release poster
Directed by Alex Gibney
Screenplay byAlex Gibney
Produced by
  • John Battsek
  • Alex Gibney
  • Erin Edeiken
  • George Chignell
Starring
Edited by
  • Michael J. Palmer
  • Graeme Butler (co-editor)
Music by
  • Peter Nashell
  • Eric V. Hachikian
Production
companies
  • Jigsaw Productions
  • Ventureland
Distributed by Apple TV+
Release dates
  • 19 February 2023 (2023-02-19)(part one - Berlin)
  • 7 April 2023 (2023-04-07)
Running time
  • 96 minutes (part one) [1]
  • 113 minutes (part two)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker is a 2023 documentary film by Alex Gibney. It details the life of troubled tennis champion Boris Becker including exclusive access to three years of his life up to his incarceration in the United Kingdom in April 2022. It is a co-production between Ventureland and Jigsaw Productions, with financing from Lorton Entertainment. The first part premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival on 19 February 2023. The film was released in two parts on Apple TV+ from April 7, 2023.

Contents

Synopsis

Narrated by Gibney, the first part of the documentary details the precocious rise of Becker the tennis player from teenage Wimbledon champion to becoming world number one. It concludes with the warning that the traits that drove Becker to tennis greatness would in turn also lead to his downfall, to be investigated in part two. [2]

Cast

Production

The project is a co-production between Ventureland and Jigsaw Productions, with financing from Lorton Entertainment and boasts exclusive access to Boris Becker over a three-year build-up to his prison sentencing in the UK courts for hiding assets and loans to avoid paying debt, in April 2022. [3] The title is a nod to his "Boom Boom" nickname as a big-serving tennis player. Interviews in the documentary include Novak Djokovic, Ion Tiriac, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. [4] Other talking heads include Michael Stich, Brad Gilbert and Nick Bollettieri. [5]

Release

The first part premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on 19 February 2023. Both parts will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on 7 April 2023. [6] [7]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 94% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Approachable even for viewers who don't know a lob from a moonball, Boom! Boom! chronicles a spectacular rise and fall with absorbing insight." [8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [9]

Kevin Maher in The Times gave the film a positive review saying it was "fabulously paced, nicely shot, and with snappy, illuminating contributions from Borg, McEnroe and an unexpectedly wry Mats Wilander. Gibney also re-examines crucial career matches with revealing hindsight". [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Björn Borg</span> Swedish tennis player (born 1956)

Björn Rune Borg is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimbledon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mats Wilander</span> Swedish tennis player

Mats Arne Olof Wilander is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. From 1982 to 1988, he won seven major singles titles, and one major men's doubles title. His breakthrough came suddenly and unexpectedly when he won the 1982 French Open at the age of 17.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Becker</span> German tennis player (born 1967)

Boris Franz Becker is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker is the youngest-ever winner of the gentleman's singles Wimbledon Championships title, a feat he accomplished aged 17 in 1985. Becker is one of the greatest Tennis players of all time and was featured in the list of Tennis magazine's 40 greatest players of all time, on the magazine's 40th anniversary in 2006. He won 64 titles overall, including an Olympic gold medal in doubles in 1992. Becker won 49 singles and 15 doubles titles including six Grand Slam singles titles: three Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and one US Open, 13 Masters titles, three year-end championships and leading Germany to back-to-back championship wins in Davis Cup 1988 and 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Lendl</span> Czech-American tennis player

Ivan Lendl is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a then-record 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. He won eight major singles titles and was runner-up 11 times, making him the first man to contest 19 major finals. Lendl also contested a record eight consecutive US Open finals and won seven year end championships including five Grand Prix Masters and two WCT Finals. Lendl is the only man in professional tennis history to have a match winning percentage of over 90% in five different years. He also had a comfortable head-to-head winning record against his biggest rivals, which translates to a 22–13 record against Jimmy Connors and a 21–15 record against John McEnroe. Lendl's dominance of his era was most evident at the year-end championships, which feature the eight best-ranked singles players. He holds a win–loss record at the event of 39–10, having contested the final nine consecutive times, a record. Commonly referred to as the 'Father Of Modern Tennis' and 'The Father Of The Inside-Out Forehand', Lendl pioneered a new style of tennis; his game was built around his forehand, hit hard and with a heavy topspin, and his success is cited as a primary influence in popularizing the now-common playing style of aggressive baseline power tennis. After retirement, he became a tennis coach for several players; in particular, he helped Andy Murray win three major titles and reach the world No. 1 ranking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McEnroe</span> American tennis player (born 1959)

John Patrick McEnroe Jr. is an American former professional tennis player known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court behavior, which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Edberg</span> Swedish tennis player (born 1966)

Jan Stefan Edberg is a Swedish former world No. 1 professional tennis player. A major practitioner of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles between 1985 and 1996. He is one of only two men in the Open Era to have been ranked world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, the other being John McEnroe. Edberg also won the Masters Grand Prix and was a part of the Swedish Davis Cup-winning team four times. In addition, he won four Masters Series titles, four Championship Series titles and the unofficial 1984 Olympic tournament, was ranked in the singles top 10 for ten successive years and ranked nine years in the top 5. After retirement, Edberg began coaching Roger Federer in January 2014, with this partnership ending in December 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Curren</span> South African tennis player

Kevin Melvyn Curren is a South African former professional tennis player. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1985. During his career he won 5 singles and 16 doubles titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikael Pernfors</span> Swedish tennis player (born 1963)

Mikael Pernfors is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1986, and won the 1993 Canadian Open in Montreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ion Țiriac</span> Romanian tennis player (born 1939)

Ion Țiriac (Romanian pronunciation:[iˈont͡siriˈak]; born 9 May 1939), also known as the "Brașov Bulldozer", is a Romanian businessman and former professional tennis and ice hockey player. He has been president of the Romanian Tennis Federation.

Boris Becker defeated defending champion Stefan Edberg in a rematch of the previous year's final, 6–0, 7–6(7–1), 6–4 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 1989 Wimbledon Championships. It was his third Wimbledon singles title and third major title overall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Gibney</span> American film director and producer (born 1953)

Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."

<i>Tennis</i> (magazine) Sports magazine

Tennis is a U.S. print sports magazine devoted to the sport of tennis. It is published eight months per year, and operates a website, Tennis.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockholm Open</span> Tennis tournament

Stockholm Open (SO) is an annual tennis tournament in Sweden that is part of the ATP Tour's 250 Series. The tournament features both men's singles and doubles events and is organized by the Royal Lawn Tennis Club (KLTK), Stockholms Allmänna Lawn Tennis Klubb (Salk), and the Stockholm Tennis Federation. Stockholm Open has been played on hard courts at the Royal Tennis Hall since 1969, except for the period between 1989 and 1994, when it was held in the Globe Arena. The tournament is traditionally held in October and November. In 2020, the event was canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The ATP Champions Tour was a men's tennis tour intended for former tennis professionals, who have since retired from mainstream professional tennis touring. The Tour brings together many of the greatest tennis players in history for nostalgic, competitive and entertaining tournaments in cities around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1990 ATP Tour</span> Mens tennis circuit

The 1990 IBM ATP Tour was the first season of the ATP Tour, the newly formed single world tennis circuit which came in replacing the two dual tours the ITF Grand Prix Circuit and WCT Circuit. It was the elite tour for professional tennis organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. In 1990 the IBM ATP Tour included the four Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP Tour World Championships, the ATP Championship Series, Single-Week, the ATP Championship Series and the ATP World Series. The World Team Cup, Davis Cup and Grand Slam Cup are included in this calendar but did not count towards the Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Battsek</span> British film producer

John Saul Adrian Battsek is a British film producer of documentary films. In 2020, Battsek co-founded production company Ventureland with producers Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown, and director Paul Hunter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McEnroe career statistics</span>

Former tennis player John McEnroe won a total of 155 ATP titles, 77 in ATP Tour singles, 77 in men's doubles, and 1 in mixed doubles. He won 25 singles titles on the ATP Champions tour. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles. He also won a record eight year end championship titles overall, the Masters championships three times, and the WCT Finals, a record five times. His career singles match record was 875–198 (81.55%). He posted the best single-season match record in the Open Era with win–loss record: 82–3 (96.5%) set in 1984 and has the best carpet court career match winning percentage: 84.18% (411–65) of any player. McEnroe was the third male player to reach 3 consecutive Grand Slam finals, in a calendar year during the open era, in 1984 after Rod Laver reached all 4 Grand Slam finals in 1969 and Bjorn Borg reached the last 3 Grand Slam finals in 1978, 1980, and 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Björn Borg career statistics</span>

This is a list of the main career statistics and records of retired Swedish professional tennis player Björn Borg. His professional career spanned from 1973 until 1984 with a brief comeback between 1991 and 1993.

References

  1. "Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker". Berlin Film Festival . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  2. Ide, Wendy (19 February 2023). "'Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker': Berlin Review". Screen. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. "Berlin 2023: Screen's guide to the Special, Forum and Generation titles". Screen Daily. 14 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  4. Escritt, Thomas (19 February 2023). "Berlinale film charts Boris Becker's career from 'boom boom' to bust". Reuters . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  5. Carey, Matthew (21 February 2023). "Berlin: Tennis Great Boris Becker's Rise And Fall Documented In Alex Gibney-Directed Series; Champ Says, "I've Paid A Heavy Price"". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  6. Frater, Patrick (19 February 2023). "Boris Becker Serves up Candor at Berlin Event and in 'Boom! Boom!' Documentary". Variety . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  7. Yossman, K. J. (6 March 2023). "Boris Becker's 'Boom! Boom!' Documentary Sets Apple TV+ Release Date". Variety. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  8. "Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  9. "Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker - Season 1 Reviews". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  10. Maher, Kevin (19 February 2023). "Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker review — they've scored an ace (but now I want more)". The Times . Retrieved 28 March 2023.