Nasty

Directed jointly by Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D. Popescu, this documentary takes 1972 as its pivot, the year Ilie Năstase won his first US Open and reached the finals of both Wimbledon and the Davis Cup. It moves back and forth in time, setting archive footage against interviews with Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Stan Smith and Nadia Comăneci. The charm is here and so is everything that came with it, the temper, the obscenity, the scandals that followed him around, because the film’s argument is that the man who demolished the sport’s old etiquette became its first rock star. Phil Knight, who co-founded Nike, also speaks, Năstase having been the first professional athlete to sign with the brand.