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Olympic Dreams DVD Review

  • Actors: Nick Kroll, Alexi Pappas
  • Director: Jeremy Teicher
  • Disc Format: NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
  • Region: Region 1 
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: 
     PG-13 
     Parents Strongly Cautioned
  • Studio: IFC Independent Film
  • DVD Release Date: May 19, 2020
  • Run Time: 82 minutes









         If I were to describe an independent film starring an actor known for his comedic roles who encounters and engages in a flirtatious friendship with a much younger woman while on a job in a foreign country, it would be easy to mistake my description for the 2003 hit, Lost in Translation. This just goes to prove that independent films, for all of their claims of creative originality, can also be guilty of formulaic plotting and derivative content, because the exact same description works for 2019’s Olympic Dreams. While it is a likable enough film, the only original element of this newer independent dramedy about two lonely souls meeting in an unfamiliar city is the setting. And while being the first film to be shot inside of the actual Olympic Village is a certain claim of originality, the filmmakers seem far more preoccupied with this element of the storytelling than the character development or dialogue.