Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal (2026): Cast, Story and

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal turns an ordinary workplace rivalry into a fiercely contested pickleball showdown. When two coworkers compete for the same promotion, their attempt to settle the dispute through sport quickly becomes a comic test of desperation, hostility, and poor sportsmanship.

Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal is a 2026 comedy about two coworkers whose competition for a promotion spills onto the pickleball court. What starts as a supposedly straightforward way to resolve a workplace dispute soon becomes far more heated.

Directed by Max Ortiz, the 22-minute film centers its humor on escalating rivalry and increasingly questionable conduct. Its concise runtime suggests a focused setup built around the clash between professional ambition and competitive impulse.

Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal movie details

Story without spoilers

Tommy and Margaret are coworkers competing for the same promotion. Rather than leave the matter to an ordinary workplace decision, they agree to settle it through a pickleball match. The contest quickly grows beyond a simple game, developing into a bitter struggle marked by hostility, desperation, and poor sportsmanship.

The premise keeps the conflict clear and contained: a professional rivalry is transferred to a recreational court, where the pressure of the promotion gives every point greater importance. The supplied cast also includes Devon, Matt, Cameron, Caleb, and Will, though their specific roles in the story are not provided.

What to expect

This is a short-form workplace comedy built around a competitive premise. Viewers can expect the central conflict to come from the contrast between a promotion decision and the increasingly serious pickleball battle meant to settle it. The tone is positioned as combative and exaggerated, with the tagline framing the match as something much more intense than an ordinary game.

At 22 minutes, the film is structured as a compact comedy rather than a feature-length workplace story. The premise points toward escalating disputes, desperation, and bad sportsmanship, but details about specific scenes, the ending, or the broader workplace setting are not supplied.

Cast and creative team

Max Balderston plays Tommy, while Abby Rankin plays Margaret. The cast also includes Andrew Sulfsted as Devon, Damien Middleton as Matt, James Austin Black as Cameron, Caleb Jones as Caleb, and Will Hattrich as Will. Max Ortiz directs the film. No writer is listed in the supplied credits.

• Max Balderston as Tommy
• Abby Rankin as Margaret
• Andrew Sulfsted as Devon
• Damien Middleton as Matt
• James Austin Black as Cameron
• Caleb Jones as Caleb
• Will Hattrich as Will

Release and production context

Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal is a 2026 comedy with a runtime of 22 minutes. It is listed as released on September 11, 2026. The production company is Birds Today Films. No country or spoken language is specified in the supplied information.

Production companies: Birds Today Films

Movies Dock view

With its compact runtime and sharply defined premise, Screwy People or: The Pickleball Ordeal focuses on the comic potential of a workplace rivalry taken onto the pickleball court. The film’s appeal rests on the escalation from professional competition to increasingly unsporting conflict, while the available details leave the specific shape of that confrontation to the viewing experience.

Film data:
TMDB