Feb 24, 2026 | 9:33 am
A deeply unserious new mockumentary out of Austin is memorializing the city’s obsession with pickleball. Pickleheads — a sports comedy directed by Josh Flanagan and written by and starring Jared Bonner — premiered in fall 2025 at the Austin Film Festival. Now the film has dropped an official trailer ahead of its Los Angeles premiere March 1 at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Pickleheads follows disgraced ping pong champion Barney “The Butcher” Bardot (Bonner), whose spectacular fall from grace, involving an on-court bodily betrayal and personal tragedy, sends him into hiding for nine years.
“Everyone says trust your gut,” Barney intones in the beginning of the film. “But what happens when your gut betrays that trust? It murders your mom.”…