Tim Carr’s film “Leaf” is an ill attempt at a documentary about former Charger Ryan Leaf.  This is the worst movie of any kind I’ve ever seen.   It is so bad I don’t know where to start.

Much like the prospect of Ryan Leaf in 2008, I was very excited about seeing this film tonight ten years later.  I figured enough time had passed and it would be funny to look back on those sorry Charger teams headed up by Ryan Leaf.  I thought watching the Leaf story would be very entertaining without bringing back the frustration and disappointment.  Well, there was plenty of disappointment but it had nothing to do with Ryan Leaf.

Jbox and I headed down to the library and hiked up to the third floor auditorium.  As we waited we chatted with other football fans.  Apparently we chatted a little too loud because we kept getting warned by Library security to keep it down.  Is that a real rule, or just an unwritten law?  No matter, soon enough we were let in and took our seats.  Surprisingly the auditorium completely filled, forcing people to stand against the wall or sit in the aisle.

The film started and from the beginning it was a disaster.   It’s filmed in the mockumentary style.  The film is told by actors, and based on their terrible performances are most likely students or friends of the director.  These “actors” try and portray everybody from reporters to fans, to teammates, to Ryan Leaf himself.  Worse than the acting is the editing.  Shots jump around and cut in and out as if they could never get a good take.

The writing is terrible!  “Leaf” is just a retelling of headline stories.  There is zero insight in this film.  The audiences, especially Charger fans, learn nothing new from this film.  Even the general dialog sucks.  And don’t get me started on the d-bag with the guitar or the Peyton Manning fan.  It’s beyond cheese.

With only a few minutes of actual footage, “Leaf” comes across worse than a high school play.  The film could easily have been done better.  I would have liked to see more real footage.   Pretty much everything event portrayed in the film has some real footage out there.  And how hard is it to interview real journalists?  Or Rodney?  Or Seau?  They’ve got nothing else going on.  The story of Ryan Leaf really had potential, but unfortunately absolutely none of it was realized.

Finally after 45 minutes I’d seen enough.  I looked over at Jbox to see his reaction to the crap in front of us.  Sure enough, Jbox had dozed off.  I woke him up and we got the hell out of there.

How appropriate the worst documentary of all time is about the worst football player of all time.  I take only one positive from “Leaf”:  I really appreciate how well the 2008 Chargers are doing.  That’s right; we could all be watching Ryan Leaf out there today instead of Rivers.  Or God forbid this film.