Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love Means Zero’ on Showtime Examines the Controversial Legacy of Tennis Coach Nick Bollettieri

The history of professional athletics has been filled with many shocking figures, but few are more controversial than tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. Over the course of his nearly 50-year career, Bollettieri has taught legends such as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Serena and Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Boris Becker. Showtime‘s Love Meets Zero explores Bollettieri’s career and legacy while questioning the impact of his contentious coaching practices.

LOVE MEETS ZERO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: When coach Nick Bollettieri first opened his tennis academy in 1978, he was dismissed for his lack of personal wins at the sport. But when Bollettieri started producing champion after champion, that criticism changed, focusing on the incredibly strict conditions implemented at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.

Love Means Zero, director Jason Kohn’s documentary about one of the most interesting and successful figures in the history of tennis, doesn’t shy away from the many controversies and rivalries connected to Bollettieri’s name. But the film is more interested in examining the frayed relationships Bollettieri left behind in his path to success. From his confusing and fractured relationship with tennis legend Andre Agassi to his coaching of the man who was determined to beat his prodigy, Boris Becker, this documentary explores how one coach’s life has been defined by intensity and cutthroat determination.

But what price did Bollettieri and more importantly the young students he taught have to pay for these victories?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If you like being shocked by well-made documentaries about controversial coaches, you’re going to love this. The environment of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA) and the emotional abuse his students endured feels a bit too much like Jon Greenhalgh’s Team Foxcatcher for comfort. But what transcends the documentary from a portrait of a complicated man to something more difficult to comprehend is its access to Bollettieri. Much like Scott Tucker’s installment of the docuseries Dirty Money, Love Means Zero gets incredibly close to the subject its trying to examine, often with intentionally frustrating results.

Performance Worth Watching: Director Jason Kohn deserves a special shoutout here. Every documentary tells a story, and in Love Means Zero‘s case, Kohn makes it clear he doesn’t know what his story about Bollettieri should be. Should he focus on the heroics that made the coach a name worth remembering? Should he focus on the emotional abuse and harsh training conditions he forced on his young students? Should he focus on the rivalries that make his legacy so interesting? As the documentary progresses, audiences can hear Kohn interviewing Bollettieri more and more. As a result, the story of this coach’s life becomes more of a question of how he should be remembered than an answer.

Memorable Dialogue: Early on Martin Blackman, a professional player who used to be one of Bollettieri’s students describes the Academy. “It was a furnace,” he says, “And a furnace can mold you and it make you stronger or it can break you. And Nick was really looking for guys who could go all in.”

Single Best Shot: The best shot of this documentary is also the one that appears the most — Bollettieri framed by an empty tennis court.

There’s something haunting about this overly focused image. As the coach gushes about his many victories and the famous players he helped sculpt, the wide shot highlights just how alone he is. Bollettieri may have fame and success, but he also has a list of people who once considered him a father figure and who now want little to do with him. It’s a cinematic reminder that the same drive that has transformed him into a sports icon has also driven a wedge between him and the athletes he shaped.

Sex and Skin: There are a lot of super short men’s shorts and shirtless men. Tennis in the ’80s was quite a time.

Our Take: Love Means Zero starts as a look at one controversial figure but morphs into a tale of emotional abuse and distance told through some of the biggest rivalries in the history of tennis. In the first moments of the film, Kohn asks Bollettieri why his student, prodigy, and “son” Andre Agassi refused to be in this documentary. Bollettieri quickly brushes the question aside to focus on the other huge players who are willing to talk about him. But despite Bollettieri’s best efforts, Love Means Zero remains almost inescapably about Agassi.

One of the coach’s former students Martin Blackman laments about how Bollettieri stopped paying him attention after Agassi and Jim Courier went pro as teenagers. Courier graphically details a match he had against Agassi and explains how seeing his beloved coach publicly and openly cheer for Agassi tore him apart. Boris Becker talks almost exclusively about how much time and energy he spent training with Bollettieri just so he could beat Agassi. Over the course of the film, Agassi doesn’t just stand as one of the best players in tennis’ history and the pinnacle of Bollettieri’s success. He becomes a symbol for this coach’s confusing history of near emotional abuse and abandonment.

At the end of the documentary when Bollettieri is finally forced to see his players and past the way they see him, it’s sad. But there’s also a lurking sense of unease. These relationships have been shattered past the point of half-hearted apologies.

But for all of the accusatory interviews present in Love Means Zero, the documentary still has a surprisingly warm tone for its subject. The film seems so eager to get to its big-name feuds and on-the-court brawls, it skirts past the conditions of NBTA, letting Bollettieri defend the institution more than the film criticizes it. It’s hard not to get the impression that Kohn has become so infatuated with his subject he’s willing to gloss over some of his less-than-savory moments.

Our Call: Stream it. Love Means Zero is a beautifully shot documentary that transforms the world of tennis into an unrelenting battle of egos.

Stream Love Means Zero on Showtime