  Footy Legends takes the feel-good sports movie and turns it on its ear. Co-writer and director Khoa Do’s feature film revolves around Luc Vu (played by co-writer Anh Do) and the world of Australian rugby. Footy Legends is set in the dead-end west Sydney suburb of Yagoona, a fitting world for Luc and his down-and-out friends, a rag-tag and ethnically diverse group of mates who were former rugby teammates in high school. When Luc, already distraught from being laid off from his job at a warehouse, is faced with social services taking away his little sister Anne (a darling performance by Lisa Saggers), he decides to gather his old team and enter the Holden Cup, an amateur rugby tournament that promises modeling jobs to the winning side. Per the sports film genre, Footy Legends goes through its paces: Luc’s team reunites, stumbles, nearly gets blown out in the championship match, and then musters their inner strength to come up victorious. But what separates Footy Legends from other sports films is its historical context and emotional core. Luc and his sister are closely tied to the Vietnam War and the refugee experience. Their mother has recently passed away and their father’s absence, though never mentioned, deftly implies that he died during the war. Their only connection to the past is their grandfather (a film-stealing performance by Dao Minh Sinh) who has war-genre bending secrets of his own. Footy Legends succeeds because like all good comedy, the story negotiates sorrow without being heavy-handed and its heartfelt acting brings the audience along for the score. By Ky-Phong Tran
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