KELCE -- A Solid Sports Documentary With an Interesting Premise

Review by Dan Skip Allen

I've been a football fan for a while now. The New England Patriots are my favorite pro team, so needless to say, I'm not much of a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. They beat my team in the Super Bowl a few years back, and I've been souring on them ever since. That being said, one of my best friends owns a Philly cheese steak franchise, and I'm constantly being reminded about the Eagles. Kelce is just another reminder that the Eagles are good right now, and my Patriots aren't. 

Jason Kelce is an offensive lineman/center for the Philadelphia Eagles. He's played for them for twelve years. He's a perennial all-star and is considered one of the best offensive linemen in the game. Football isn't all this man is about, though. This new documentary sheds light on his family life, his businesses, his podcast New Heights (with his equally talented brother Travis Kelce, who's a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs), and everything in between. 

The documentary is an inside look at a man who has had a lot of good years in his life, but when you're as famous as he is, you have to take things in stride. No family is perfect, and we all have skeletons in the closet. We just don't have documentaries airing our dirty laundry for millions of people to see on Prime Video.

As most football fans know by now, the Chiefs and the Eagles played in the Super Bowl this past February. It was dubbed the “Kelce Bowl” because both Kelce Brothers played on opposite teams — one for the Eagles and one for the Chiefs. This was a great moment for the family, including their mother, who took the opportunity to do every interview from East Coast to West Coast. She was a celebrity because her sons were in the game. The fact remained, though, that one team had to win and one team had to lose, and we all know how the game turned out. The Chiefs won 38 to 35, and one Kelce was happy, while the other was sad.

As documentaries go, this one doesn't do anything new. It focuses on mostly talking heads and footage of Jason Kelce going through his life in various ways. Part of that is it focuses on his wife Kylie. She is the mother of two little girls and a third one on the way. Ironically enough, if Kelce didn't have enough on his plate, his wife was nine months pregnant, and she and the kids traveled with an entire entourage of assistants to Arizona, in case she went into labor early. The film captures everything except that special moment in time, which was a little too personal for the family

Besides the talking head aspect, there are a few other ways the filmmaker gets information to the viewers of the film. Director Dan Argot used the entire 2022 NFL season as a framing device. He goes game by game, and in between he depicts this man's life. The voices of radio hosts and sportscasters are littered throughout the film to dictate week to week how the season is going for this man. Sometimes things don't go very well, but most of the time they do, including the birth of a child and a successful podcast with his brother.

Kelce isn't going to be for everybody, but if you are a sports fan or an Eagles fan, this glimpse into this man's life will be pretty fascinating for you. I was interested in his wife's take on things, as well as what we got of the two brothers. Travis didn't get as much air time as I'd like, but this wasn't his documentary, so I understand that. This film had a specific moment it was leading to, and if you're a fan of this man and his team, you know what happened regarding that decision. If not, this might be an engaging aspect of the film. 

Kelce streams on Prime Video beginning September 12.

Rating: 4/5