Kyle Busch, the winningest driver in NASCAR history, is polarizing.
The new feature-length documentary “Rowdy” on Amazon’s Freevee service will ensure you have an opinion about him.
The film looks at Busch’s career, starting with a 2015 crash that threatened to derail his first Cup Series championship chase.
The documentary is a single-athlete-focus sports film.
It follows a standard formula: introducing the athlete, explaining why they are misunderstood, establishing their personality traits, and showing how they overcame adversity.
The movie begins with Busch’s severe crash in the 2015 racing season that could have ended his career or worse.
Then it moves back to his childhood, where he was a precocious, cocky teenager who grew up around racing and debuted on the track at 16.
Busch explains living in the shadow of his older brother, fellow NASCAR driver Kurt Busch.
The film features a mix of on-screen interviews with Busch and a series of racing and media personalities contextualizing who he is and his actions.
The film smartly works to ground things in emotion from the start, with Busch’s wife Samantha recounting her experience watching his 2015 crash while 27 weeks pregnant with the couple’s first child. This invests the viewer quickly in the story.
Overall, the documentary is a straightforward movie that seeks to paint Busch in the friendliest light, repackaging his flaws into character details.
Despite being a standard sports documentary, “Rowdy” mostly works.
Busch is aware of his public image, and the film is a fun, smartly-constructed and capable piece of storytelling worth streaming for NASCAR fans, whether or not they like Kyle Busch.
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