Rent Saipan (2025)

Standards, Shortcuts and One Big Bust-Up - Saipan review by griggs

Like Jaws not being about the shark, you realise pretty quickly this isn’t really about football. Saipan uses the Keane–McCarthy bust-up as its hook, but what it’s really poking at is how two grown men can speak the same language and still not hear each other. One lives and dies by standards and elite preparation; the other muddles through with “that’ll do” pragmatism and a few war stories.

When the film leans into that clash of worldviews, it’s fun and often painfully recognisable – anyone who’s worked under a useless boss or a ruthless disciplinarian will recognise the dynamic. The performances sketch the types nicely, even if they rarely surprise.

Where Saipan feels slighter is away from the dressing room. It hints at bigger questions about leadership, class, and what “success” even means, but doesn’t dig as deep as it could. I liked it more as an office comedy in tracksuits than as a grand state-of-the-nation drama.

Average Sports Drama - Saipan review by GI

A somewhat lightweight sports drama about the infamous quarrel between Roy Keane, the Captain of the Irish national football team, and the team's manager Mike McCarthy resulting in Keane's walk out from the 2002 World Cup. The two main stars, Éanna Hardwicke as Keane and Steve Coogan as McCarthy, are both good in what is essentially a chamber piece drama as the two butt heads with Keane frustrated by what he sees as the poor treatment of the Irish team at their training ground on Saipan, including the failure to supply footballs! McCarthy agrees but sees Keane as behaving with an air of entitlement and superiority. There's a more interesting story potentially here in the international treatment and view of Ireland and their own self perception which is touched upon but not really pursued with the film played as a personality conflict. It's intermixed with real footage and is of interest particularly for football fans but overall it's underwhelming.