The Dink review praises Apple TV’s pickleball comedy as a warm winner
Mashable says Josh Greenbaum’s The Dink turns pickleball panic into a funny, heartfelt sports comedy led by Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Apple TV’s The Dink arrives July 24 with pickleball paddles, tennis grudges and a cast stacked with familiar comic faces, according to Mashable’s review of the new Josh Greenbaum film.
The comedy stars Jake Johnson as Dusty Boyd, a former child tennis prodigy whose early promise collapsed after a disastrous match against Andy Roddick, who appears as himself. Dusty now coaches children at a tennis club run by his father, Chuck, played by Ed Harris.
Mashable describes Chuck as a joyless tennis loyalist who sees the club’s pickleball players as an existential threat to the sport he loves. In the film, the conflict escalates after pickleball players, led by a character played by Patton Oswalt, push for more court space.
Chuck responds by arranging a tournament: tennis player versus pickleball player, with the winner deciding what happens to the courts.
A pickleball war with a soft center
Dusty is meant to help crush the pickleball crowd, according to the review, but his plans change once he starts playing the sport himself. He joins a group that includes Candace, played by Mary Steenburgen, and slowly gets pulled into the game’s rhythms, language and social world.
Mashable says the film uses Dusty and Candace’s friendship to explore how both characters have been held back by stories they keep telling themselves about their pasts. That emotional thread leads into the climactic match, where pickleball becomes the film’s life lesson.
The review notes that John McEnroe appears in the movie as an uninvited commentator during the decisive contest.
Johnson and Steenburgen lead the charge
Johnson, known for New Girl, plays Dusty as a romantic sad sack and comic mess, Mashable says. Steenburgen’s Candace serves as a sharper, steadier presence opposite him.
The review says the film avoids turning their relationship into a standard opposites-attract romance, instead leaning on their comic contrast and easy chemistry.
Aaron Chen also appears as Dusty’s co-worker, a character who looks up to Dusty and believes his exaggerated stories. Mashable says Chen’s understated style gives the movie room for stranger visual jokes and drier comedy.
The supporting lineup includes Ben Stiller as a talkative doctor, Chris Parnell as a self-satisfied tennis player, Chloe Fineman as a harsh ex, Oswalt as a rigid pickleballer and the late Lynne Marie Stewart, known for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Pee-wee’s Playhouse, as one of Candace’s flirtatious friends.
Ed Harris gets serious about silly business
Mashable gives special praise to Harris, saying his stern, straight-faced performance makes Chuck’s panic over club courts funnier. The review compares the role with Harris’ recent run of severe father figures in Love Lies Bleeding, Riff Raff and How to Make a Killing.
Greenbaum previously directed the comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and the documentary Will & Harper. Mashable says The Dink shares those films’ affection for older women as vivid, funny characters rather than punchlines about age.
The review also says the movie does not sneer at pickleball or the people who play it. Mashable’s verdict: Greenbaum blends broad, oddball and physical comedy into a warm sports comedy built for audiences beyond pickleball die-hards.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.