Angel City FC’s eponymous HBO documentary is drenched in sunlight. It’s full of gorgeous slow-motion shots of players mid-game, bringing you in close to the action, trying to fill you up with the roaring crowd sounds. That’s why it’s so jarring to go back to actual NWSL broadcast footage, where the visual and audio quality is often variable, swinging between “fine” and “yikes.”
That’s an encapsulation of the overall Angel City experience vis-a-vis NWSL: ACFC likes to put out a comparatively lavish affair in a league that is just now starting to find stronger financial footing. This documentary is no different, finally dipping a toe into the extremely fruitful waters of sports documentaries, which we’ve seen deliver audience growth for other sports and leagues, like the WNBA’s Sports Emmy-nominated “144” about playing a season in the Wubble, the NFL’s Hard Knocks, and of course, F1’s Drive to Survive, which is frequently credited with boosting the popularity of F1 in the United States.
Directed by longtime cinematographer Arlene Nelson, and produced in part by ACFC co-owner Natalie Portman’s MountainA, alongside Little Monster Films and O’Malley Creadon Productions, this documentary aims to mine some of that sports documentary success not just…
