Green and Gold (2025) | Film Review

Green and gold are more than Wizard of Oz motifs. These are also the colors of one of America’s greatest football teams, the Green Bay Packers. If you grew up in the Midwest, as I did, you have a very specific feeling about those colors, depending on who you root for. For me, it also means a sense of community and belonging. A collection of (mostly) kind folks from varying walks of life who can bond instantly after catching a glimpse of that green and gold in the wind. Green and Gold is also this film’s title, and Anders Lindwall’s movie aims to bring that connection to the forefront and deliver a film that will somehow appeal to Bears fans as well.

Craig T. Nelson stars as Buck, an aging Wisconsin farmer with dreams of his family’s land falling to his next in line, his granddaughter, Jenny (Madison Lawlor). He’s devoted and hardworking, and a die-hard Packers fan, even naming his cattle after the ’68 championship team (while naming the pigs after Ditka, if you know you know). Meanwhile, Jenny is unsure if this land is her future, as she has an aspiring career as a singer she pursues when not tending to the stock and other chores. Buck is a stubborn Midwesterner who sees legacy as the most important aspect of his family, and Jenny wants the world to hear her voice.

Buck has already lost his daughter, as Jenny has her mother, when the bank comes calling his loan in. It’s 1993 and Buck has yet to modernize his farming techniques, which in turn is cutting into profits. After much back-and-forth amidst his initial reluctance, desperation and a push from Jenny motivates Buck to take a deal where if the Packers win the Super Bowl, the bank will give him another year to pay with no interest. If they lose, he must pay it off the next day. It’s an insane development, but Packer fans believe in Titletown.

What is most interesting about Green and Gold is how unrelated to football it truly is. While we do follow Favre as the team barrels through the season, this is truly a tale about the importance of community, as well as Jenny’s maturity while she struggles with her relationship with her grandfather. Nelson is the name and any time he is onscreen we are instantly reminded of why he is an actor who has resonated with audiences for decades, but this is Lawlor’s movie. Jenny is our window into the plight of farmers everywhere.

Madison Lawlor’s performance is endearingly heartfelt, Jenny walks the fine line of loving her family and life while also chasing a dream far away from the farms of Wisconsin with a potential music producer (an always smoldering Brandon Sklenar). Lawlor is that connective tissue for anyone who cares little about football or cattle grazing, and the stark contrast between Jenny and Nelson’s Buck ironically fuel the emotive aspects of their bond.

Nelson emulates hardworking and hard-headed Midwesterner with ease, but there is an undercurrent of subtleness whenever he is near his family. His love for his wife, Margaret (Annabel Armour), and granddaughter is evident, even as he struggles mightily with any concept of life outside of farming. Often his point of view makes it difficult to root for Buck, but Nelson understands how to make a character like Buck work.

The script is credited to Missy Mareau Garcia, Michael Graf, and Anders Lindwall (who also directs), and there is an air of predictability as there are in all tales of this sort. The only question that matters, though, is whether the movie is entertaining?

Green and Gold is a great time at the movies. Oddly, the film honestly has very little to do with football, and more revolving around the community that supports the game. It is about family, neighbors, and selfless devotion to a world uncentered on oneself. Craig T. Nelson and Madison Lawlor deliver a winning relationship, reminding us of all that do love football, why it is so special to us. It’s not about the touchdowns; it’s about the people cheering and crying along with us.