F1: The Movie. A Review

F1: THE MOVIE

"Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast". This was the mantra that the lead character's father would live by when it came to racing. F1: The Movie follows this mantra. Perhaps a bit longer than it should be, F1: The Movie still has enough in terms of story and visuals to make for a great viewing.

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) still races, but the former elite racecar driver is now a vagabond in the racing world. Living in his van, he goes for almost any kind of race that piques his interest. Sonny in turn has no interest in joining any company or organization. Sonny appears to like his life as a wanderer, but it looks like the world has passed by the former racing wunderkind who once raced along legends like Ayrton Senna.

That changes when his former fellow F1 driver Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) finds Sonny. Ruben now owns the APXGP F1 team and asks Sonny to come work for him. He needs an experienced driver both for the team and to mentor his young hotshot driver, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris). Cervantes is in desperate need to win at least one of the remaining F1 Grand Prix races, otherwise he will be forced to sell the team. The board is eager to dump this losing team, with only Peter Banning (Tobias Menzies) the sole supportive board member This concerns Pierce, who worries that he will not be hired by any other F1 teams due to his relative inexperience. This also concerns the APXGP team itself, who fear for their jobs and careers. 

APXGP technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) left her career at NASA to engineer an F1 vehicle that would all but fly. However, the experienced and grizzled veteran knows that the problems lie in part with the car. They also lie with the driver. Pierce is dismissive of this old man coming to teach him anything, though "J.P."'s mother Bernadette (Sarah Niles) does say that Sonny is a handsome man. The battle between Joshua and Sonny continues, as does their mutual struggle to win a race.

Sonny knows all the tricks of the trade, which he uses to push APXGP onwards. Joshua, at first contemptuous, finds that Sonny's experience may be helpful. Sonny, for his part, slowly embraces newer techniques in racing. That is not to say that there aren't major stumbles along the way. Horrific crashes, accusations of illegal mechanical alterations, unreported injuries and a secret enemy inside APXGP all work against the team. Will Sonny find any victory at the end of the finish line? Will rookie Joshua get his own?

In many ways, F1: The Movie plays a bit like another film from director Joseph Kosinski, screenwriter Ehren Kruger and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. There is the experienced and still attractive veteran, seen as an antique by the young man he will mentor. There is the rookie, looking for his place in the sun who goes from dismissive to embracing of said veteran. A love interest for the veteran, wise and professional, but still not above mixing business with pleasure. The older man advising the younger man to focus on the job and not on outside noise. Thrilling action sequences that are visually spectacular. There are more than passing resemblances between F1: The Movie and Top Gun: Maverick. The former hits many of the same notes as the latter with few differences. 

Perhaps the biggest difference between F1: The Movie and Top Gun: Maverick is that the former features cameos from racers such as Sir Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, along with DJ Tiesto (briefly scene at a Las Vegas party that Joshua and his agent go to). Hamilton is one of the film's producers. In some ways, F1: The Movie is a bit too "insider", so many of the cameos will go over viewers who know next to nothing about Formula One. If not for my knowledge of Ayrton Senna, I would be even more lost when it comes to the minutia the film has. 

This does not take away from a person's enjoyment of F1: The Movie. It is, however, a warning that those who do not follow F1 will not get some references and may be a little lost on its rules and procedures. The film does its best to fill us in, but there is a risk that some will not be as fully invested in the racing.

Fortunately, the screenplay gives us characters that people will care about. This is one of Brad Pitt's best performances. Sonny is someone who by the end is still a mystery, perhaps to himself. The film ends with him going to a low-level race to offer his services. Told that there is little money, he tells them that it's not about the money. What is it about, he is asked. Sonny merely laughs softly, and the film closes (we do see scenes of him in this dune race during the credits). Sonny knows racing, trusts the old methods, and is aware of Joshua's skills. He also seems eerily content with some of his poor decisions. This is a complex man. I would not say that he is filled with regret over never achieving what his skills and potential could have made him. I would say that he is resigned to it. Pitt has a wonderful monologue near the end when he talks about his life and his life in racing. It is quite and natural, making Sonny Hayes a person and not a character.

Idris too does well as Joshua Pierce. In other films, Joshua may have been merely a cocky figure. However, Idris made him someone who also worried about his own career, who went through a traumatic experience and grew from it. Bardem had a great enthusiasm as Ruben, who was both friend and businessman. Condon made Kate into an intelligent woman, capable and aware of her position as one of the few women in this male-dominated business. I am not surprised that a romance did eventually come. I think that is not a dealbreaker but not something that I eager for.

Kruger's screenplay (from a story by Kruger and Kosinski) has some great moments. One of the APXGP team asks what another is looking at in the distance. Ruben says, "We look to the future", and then see that the crewman sees Sonny Hayes coming down. It is a nice bit to have "the future" be the past. 

The film uses music quite well. There is Hans Zimmer's score, a strong sense of electronica that pulsates and pushes the various racing scenes. The selected songs also fit the scenes. We hear Chris Stapleton, for example, sing Bad as I Used to Be when Sonny takes his first APXGP test drive. It does underscore Sonny's manner on the track and in life. Perhaps this is a bit too on-the-nose, but I thought it worked. 

What did not work all that well were at least three parts. One was the romance, which I expected. It was again not terrible but not original. Also not original was the identity of the APXGP member who tried a last-minute sabotage. I figured out the machinations before they were revealed. The last part was the film's length. At about two-and-a-half hours, it does drag around the midpoint.

F1: The Movie is about those who find passion in their work. It has some spectacular racing sequences, some of which will make you sit up and take notice. Well-acted and written overall, one does not have to know much about Formula One to enjoy F1: The Movie, one of the best films of the year. 

DECISION: B+ (8/10)

The Great American Pastime: A Review

 

THE GREAT AMERICAN PASTIME

Welcome to Rick's Texan Reviews Annual Opening Day Movie Review, where I look at a baseball-related film to coincide with the AAA Opening Day for the El Paso Chihuahuas. This year, I look at the funny frolics of Little League.

Long before we had the Bad News Bears, we had the Willow Falls Panthers. The Great American Pastime looks at the dangers of Little League Baseball, from pushy parents to dirty players. While essentially a B-film, The Great American Pastime has just enough charm to carry it over.

Bruce Hallerton (Tom Ewell) loves watching baseball, but he is not big on other things, such as his wife Betty (Anne Francis) or son Dennis (Rudy Dee). A surprise opportunity for father-son bonding comes up when a group of fellow attorneys ask him to be their Little League team manager. Unfortunately for Bruce, Dennis is placed on a rival Little League team. Still determined to make the best of it, Bruce continues managing the disastrous Panthers.

The poor record does not win him any fans among the Panthers' parents save perhaps for one: the luscious Doris Patterson (Anne Miller). This femme fatale of the Little League set always laughs at Bruce's jokes, invites him (and his family) to dinner and appears delighted to be near the plain Bruce. Betty clearly dislikes this black widow, much to Bruce's confusion. Bruce now has to content not only with Betty's growing green-eyed monster but Dennis adopting the questionable "win-at-all-costs" attitude the Tigers have. Will Bruce grow to bring at least one win to the hapless Panthers? Will he let Doris down easy? Will he get a big surprise from Doris and Betty?

The Great American Pastime is fully aware that it is meant to be a bit light. As such, I judge it on whether or not it entertained me and made me laugh. It did this mostly well.

What did surprise me was in how almost progressive The Great American Pastime is when it comes to adultery and sex. Granted it was a bit in double entendre and suggestions, but it worked quite well. Remarking on what he considers Doris' best attributes (raising a son as a widow), he says, "I take my hat off to her". Betty instantly fires back, "Please make sure that's all". After an outraged Doris crushes Bruce's dreams of a mistress, she informs him that she was only buttering him up to get a favorable position for her son Herbie. As she orders him out of her house, she gives him a parting shot. "Now run along and...play with your marbles". 

Read that any way you like.

The Great American Pastime also features two black players. Sadly, we never heard from them or the parents, but I find it a step forward. 

The performances range from the amusing to the tolerable. Tom Ewell is pleasant enough as Bruce, a put-upon man who creates his own disasters. Appropriately silly when working with Doris, he does not do so well when bemoaning his situations to Betty. Francis is a bit weak as Betty, but to be fair it was not a great part. The thought of Miller as this Little League temptress is amusing, more so given the plain-looking Ewell. However, she did quite well in the role. The Great American Pastime is also an early role for Dean Jones as the eager young coach. Bruce's voiceover description of Buck Rivers has one of Nathaniel Benchley's clever lines: "His teeth were so white they made me nervous". 

We get a lot of amusing zingers in The Great American Pastime. Early on, Bruce describes his team as "a nest of midgets". Later on, he attempts to make Betty sympathetic to the black widow Doris by telling her that her husband "disappeared into the jungle". "What was he: a baboon?" she derisively responds. After a disastrous game, Dennis is talking about the results with the family dog, Smidgen. An irate Bruce asks that Dennis stop. "Why? You afraid he'll get your job?", Betty replies.

One thing that I think was a flaw was in having Ewell address us directly in the opening and closing. I think we could have done without the voiceovers too, though it is not a deal-breaker for me. 

At a brisk 90 minutes, The Great American Pastime knows when to start and when to finish. A light affair, The Great American Pastime may not be great itself, but it is pleasant enough and fully aware. 

DECISION: C+

2024 Opening Day Film: Mr. Baseball

2023 Opening Day Film: Angels in the Outfield (1954) 

2022 Opening Day Film: Bull Durham

2021 Opening Day Film: Alibi Ike

2020 Opening Day Film: Mr. 3000

2019 Opening Day Film: Ladies' Day

2018 Opening Day Film: Fear Strikes Out

2017 Opening Day Film: Eight Men Out

The Freshman (1925): A Review (Review #1885)

THE FRESHMAN

Who does not love college football? The Freshman is a loving homage to the wild and wacky, not to mention whacked-out, world of school sports and the rewards of persistence in the face of total obliviousness.

Harold Lamb (Harold Lloyd) is off to Tate University, described in the title cards as "a large football stadium with a college attached". Wanting to make a good impression, Harold takes his cues from the films he has seen to show how to behave. Among the things Harold knows to do is to do a little jig every time he meets anyone, which is met with everything from puzzlement to derision. 

He also meets the pretty Peggy (Jobyna Robson), first on a train to Tate, then when owing to his naivete finds lodgings in her mother's hotel. Harold is determined to make the best impression among his collegiate class, down to presenting himself as "Speedy". He ends up getting the mocking nickname "Speedy the Spender", thoroughly unaware that everyone is literally cashing in on him. 

Nevertheless, Speedy is set on joining the football team despite having no athletic skills. Harold tries out for the football team and ends up the team's literal practice dummy and later as their waterboy. Thoroughly convinced that he is a Big Man on Campus, Speedy the Spender throws a great soiree where his unfinished suit causes him chaos. Despite this disaster and the revelation of the truth, Harold is determined to make his mark on the gridiron. Will Harold find the chance to be the College Hero that he knows himself to be?

Despite my poor knowledge of football rules, even I knew that, technically, the climatic football game was filled with illegal plays. Harold would have been ruled down on many drives. However, one would have to be downright petty to give much thought to such matters. The Freshman, like its hero, is so full of heart and humor that it does not matter that endless rules were violated or ignored. That is actually part of the fun in The Freshman, its ability to operate on its own logic. 

As a side note, if one thinks about it, The Freshman's hero preceded Adam Sandler's similarly-themed The Waterboy by a good seventy-three years. Both have our naive football players serve as waterboys, pursue the girl of their dreams and come through for their college team at the end. This may be the only time I compare Harold Lloyd with Adam Sandler.

The Freshman works because Harold Lloyd takes the premise seriously. He is fully committed to the story and the character. For example, after being the football team's literal punching bag, he comes home absolutely exhausted and battered. He then sees that a friend has brought over someone he has never met. Despite his physical condition, Harold nonetheless does his greeting jig, albeit in a state of near collapse. 

The film has various brilliant sight gags and title cards that elicit laughter. When Harold arrives at Tate, he is blissfully unaware that the car he is directed to take is not for him, but for the Dean. "The Dean of the College--he was so dignified he never married for fear his wife would call him by his first name", the title card reads. While The Freshman runs a mere 76 minutes, it is so packed with great moments of humor that it never feels it skimped out on anything. 

One of the best sequences does not even involve the big game. Instead, it involves the dance that the totally unaware Speedy throws. Owing to time, Harold's suit is not ready. A hurried job to complete it is made before he rushes off. Aware that his suit is constantly coming apart, the tailor is at the ready attempting desperately to keep it together. The various efforts at keeping up the rouse is hilarious from start to finish.

The Freshman has delightful turns from everyone in the cast. Lloyd excels as the naive Harold Lamb, sweet, unaware but determined. Ralston was very pretty as Peggy, the girl who saw the hero behind Speedy's cluelessness. 

Fast-paced, charming, sweet and most of all extremely funny, The Freshman gets the ultimate passing grade. 

DECISION: A+

Next Goal Wins (2023): A Review (Review #1815)

 

NEXT GOAL WINS

I had the great fortune to see a great sports film: Breaking Away. I think I got spoiled, for that Best Picture nominee was followed up in my viewing by one of the worst sports films I have ever seen: Next Goal Wins. Based on a true story, Next Goal Wins is so convinced that it is funny that it ends up being anything but. 

The American Samoan soccer team is the worst team to ever attempt to qualify for the World Cup. In 2001, the Australian Socceroos team did more than demolish the American Samoans. They won over them in a shocking 31-0 score. Since then, the Football Federation of American Samoa continues to struggle with an abysmal team. Now in 2014, there is a chance for FFAS to redeem themselves to the world and themselves.

Down on his luck coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) has been fired by his estranged wife Gail (Elisabeth Moss) and her new boyfriend Alex (Will Arnett). He also has been sent by them to American Samoa on this mission of mercy. A bit of a lush with a tragic secret, Thomas cannot enjoy the beauty of American Samoa as he endures this motley crew of inept footballers. 

He also struggles to tolerate the quirky nature of the American Samoans. Of all the players, the most dominant in terms of story is Jaiyah (Kaimana), who is "fa'fafine", biologically male but really female. A bit of a distracted player, Jaiyah is only aggressive when you call Jaiyah by the birth name "Johnny". How will Rongen, this white man sent to be the team savior, be able to get his team to achieve FFAS' one task: get the team to score just one goal? Will the American Samoans rise to the occasion and show the world that they are not a joke?

Next Goal Wins works if and only if (and that is a big if) you see it as an inept parody of those inspirational sports film like Breaking Away or Hoosiers. You can make a good parody out of the concept, but Next Goal Wins appears to want to hedge its bets on that concept. If it was meant to be sincere, it ended up being an almost mean-spirited take on these characters. Everything in Next Goal Wins is so self-consciously broad that even in the parts that may be true to what happened come across as dreadful farce.

Director and cowriter Taika Waititi (writing with Iain Morris) never wanted to settle on whether Next Goal Wins was sincere or cynical. This almost crazed confusion comes a great deal from how the actors play the parts. It is almost sad to see good actors playing things so overtly broad that they looked as if they knew they were giving bad performances. In Fassbender's first scene, he attempts to justify his poor record. "You can be riding high in April, shot down in May," he tells them. I sat there absolutely shocked that Rongen was literally quoting the song That's Life when his job was on the line. Fassbender's delivery did not help. He is an exceptionally talented actor but throughout the film, he looked slightly crazed and with no growth.

Throwing in almost at the last minute a tragic story from his past crushes any sense of the forced wackiness Next Goal Wins was pushing. You cannot take any of this seriously when Rongen is ambushed at the airport by a camera crew for Who's on the Plane?, which we are told is the most popular show on the island. Every time, every single time, that Next Goal Wins wants to push how wacky and quirky everyone was, it ended up making everyone look either stupid or insane.

How do you take seriously a film where FFAS head Tavita (Oscar Kightley) literally sounds out the acronym as if it were literally what the organization is called?

A good chunk of Next Goal Wins revolves around Jaiyah, a curious decision on a number of levels. Jaiyah can technically play on the American Samoan team because Jaiyah is still listed as male. If we went with the idea that Jaiyah is female, does that mean that women can play with men in the men's league? There is a women's World Cup, so it is a bit confusing why Jaiyah is not with that team. Granted, there is no American Samoan women's team, but given that Next Goal Wins makes clear Jaiyah will transition, it seems close to having a woman on the men's team.

Moreover, nothing in Next Goal Wins suggests that Jaiyah in particular is a good-to-great soccer player. The film actually makes the case that in Jaiyah's flighty, distracted manner, Jaiyah should have been cut. Why the film focused so much on Jaiyah at the expense of someone like Nicky Salapu (Uli Latukefu), the 2001 goalie who wants a second chance to redeem himself, one does not know. It certainly does not help that Waititi opted to give himself a part as a local minister who opens Next Goal Wins. Why an ostensibly Protestant minister would wear a robe with Mary, Mother of Christ on it again one cannot explain.

We are told that the American Samoans are very religious. That religious aspect is played for laughs, such as their habit of literally stopping whatever they are doing when the bells rings. It does not make them look reverential. It makes them look like they are being summoned by the Morlocks. Given how big some of the American Samoan teammates are, the Morlocks could feast on them for months on end.

Next Goal Wins is more delusional than anyone who thinks the American Samoans will ever hoist the World Cup. I figure everyone aimed for another film of a group of athletes unsuited for their chosen sport. The Jamaican bobsled team from Cool Runnings however were in a funny film that did not make them look stupid.     

DECISION: F

Breaking Away: A Review

BREAKING AWAY

It is a curious thing that despite receiving five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and winning for its screenplay, Breaking Away is not as well-known today. That seems a terrible shame, for Breaking Away is a beautiful film that celebrates the underdog and will have you cheering on our characters despite yourself.

In Bloomington, Indiana, nineteen-year-old Dave Stohler (Dennis Christopher) has become thoroughly obsessed with cycling, particularly Italian cycling. He has convinced himself to become Italian: learning the language, singing opera, even shaving his legs. This drives his father Ray (Paul Dooley) thoroughly bonkers while his mother Evelyn (Barbara Barrie) is quietly more tolerant, if perhaps puzzled, by Dave's Italian fixation.

Dave has cycling as his passion; his close friends, however, have nothing to really look forward to. They are not eager for jobs, if any are to be found. They also have resentment against the affluent college students at Indiana University, who dismiss them all as "cutters" (referring to the quarries where their families would have worked). The unofficial leader of these cutters, Mike (Dennis Quaid) has a perennial chip on his shoulder. The more casual Cyril (Daniel Stern) really has nothing in terms of prospects or family. Mooch (Jackie Earle Haley) is the smallest of the group who is quickly angered when called Shorty.

Dave is thrilled when he learns the Italian Cinzano group will be racing near them, seeing it as a chance to compete with and against his idols. He also, adopting an Italian identity of "Enrico Gimondi" starts romancing pretty I.U. sorority girl Katherine (Robyn Douglass). Whether he is deliberately faking his Italian identity or genuinely believes it is an open question given his Italian fixation. 

Things don't go as Dave wants when he races against Cinzano. Devastated, he returns to his American nature and is in danger of drifting towards a cutter destiny. He has one potential spark for life: the Little 500 bicycle race. Will his generally unapproving but still loving father guide Dave back to finding that he can rise above his own lowered expectations? Will the four Cutters be able to take on and take down the snobbish Sigma Tau Omega fraternity? Is there hope in bloom for our Bloomington Four?

What Breaking Away has is something similar to what made two other sports films, Rocky and Hoosiers, exceptional and beloved. Peter Yates' Oscar-winning screenplay (which he also directed) does not focus on the big competition itself. Instead, like with Rocky and Hoosiers, it focuses on the characters, these flawed but relatable and mostly likeable characters whom you end up rooting for. This is for all the characters, not just the four friends. Katherine, for example, is not a dumb bimbo or snob but a genuinely nice girl who is understandably upset when she learns "Enrico Gimondi" is anything but. Dave's parents too are neither brutal nor saintly. They are instead average parents who want to be supportive but are also exasperated by what they see. 

As we get to know them, we get to understand them and more importantly, care for and about them. It is a credit to Yates' directing and screenplay that we look at some of their questionable actions and in Dave's case at-times bizarre behavior as more endearing than dangerous. The film takes its time to build up these characters, so by the time the big race comes, we want them to have that moment of triumph.

I will not lie: by the time the race reached its climax, I was at the edge of my seat. I was cheering them on to win. Once the race was over, I pumped my fists in the air and even had a small tear or two. It is because everyone in Breaking Away is again likeable and/or relatable. One understands how these young men could see themselves as somehow inferior, especially compared to the preppies at Indiana University. 

Breaking Away also manages to balance nicely comedy and drama. Most of that is with the Stohler family. Brilliantly played by Paul Dooley, Breaking Away shows Ray as cantankerous but never truly harsh. Forever bemoaning his forced diet, he rails against both his healthy food and Dave's Italian cuisine. Criticizing the various "inis" Evelyn makes (zucchini, linguine, fettucine), he ends by barking, "I want some American food, damn it! I want French fries!". Dooley's delivery is perfect: a blend of frustration and quiet resignation. You can see, however, in Dooley's performance the genuinely loving father Ray is. As he walks with Evelyn one night, you get hints through Ray's words that he does not want his son to be a used car salesman and wants better for Dave. Later on, Ray takes Dave to a walk at the University, where he tells him of the pride that he felt in making the limestones that were used to build the University but still feels out of place there.

Again, it is subtle, but one can read between the lines that Ray loves Dave, even with all of his son's eccentricities. The final shot involving Ray ends Breaking Away in a delightful and amusing manner. 

It is surprising that Dooley was not nominated for his performance and Barbara Barrie was. It is not to say that she did not deserve one as the tolerant mother who finds Dave's dolce vita aspirations secretly joyful. There is a wonderful moment when she shows Dave, who at this time has lost that Italian spark, her passport. She tells him she carries it with her all the time, with the hope to show it as proof of her identity to any new A&P checkout girl who asks for identification. Yet again, the suggestion is subtle but clear: she supports her son moving forward. We do see again subtlety in the film about her character: she is seen in bed reading Valley of the Dolls. Make of that what you will.

Even Katherine, who at the end reconciles with Dave (though not romantically) gives him encouragement.

She tells him that she is going to Italy with her parents in the summer, no doubt inspired by "Enrico". Katherine adds that he might go too. "I'm not going anywhere," he sheepishly tells her. She looks at him and replies, "I don't know about that". It is clear there's a double meaning, but it is so well done. 

Breaking Away also has four standout performances by the four Cutters. Christopher is charming and winning as Dave, a young man so immersed in his dream that it is genuinely unclear if he just wants to be Italian or really thinks he is. He puts great charm and humor when serenading Katherine with opera (albeit not with the best voice). You like him, feel for him, root for him. 

Quaid and Stern got big boosts out of Breaking Away as the tough but vulnerable Mike and quietly lonely Cyril. Quaid has something of a monologue as they look down on the I.U. football practice, aware that he too had football skills but was destined to be anywhere but on the gridiron. In his hostility to the world which masked a fear of it, she showcases a charm and sincerity that wins you to want his success. Stern's final scene, where there is no one to share his success with, is comically moving. Haley is the only one with something of a subplot: a romance with an A&P cashier. While not a major plot point in Breaking Away, we do see how Mooch is how he is: a fighter who won't be kept down by others, though perhaps by himself. 

Breaking Away, while not as well-known or remembered as I think it is or should be, is a treasure. It ranked eighth in two American Film Institute's Best List: Best Sports Film and Most Inspirational Film. Putting this small film with such established classics as the aforementioned Rocky and Hoosiers shows that Breaking Away is, like the Cutters cycling team, going the distance and making the most of its chance. Breaking Away will win you over with its mix of heart and humor, a delight and a film that will indeed have you cheering. 

DECISION: A+

Mr. Baseball: A Review (Review #1804)

 

MR. BASEBALL

Welcome to Rick's Texan Reviews Annual Opening Day Film review, where I look at a baseball-related film to coincide with the Minor League Baseball Opening Day. Today's film tackles the wacky culture clash that unites American and Japanese baseball.

Shohei Ohtani is still early in his Major League Baseball career, but he is already being tapped as one of the greatest players of our time if not all time. He comes in the shadow of another Japanese baseball figure, one who is so illustrious and legendary that one only need say "Ichiro" and baseball fans know whom you speak of. While Japan has still not dominated the baseball world to the extent that the United States has, they certainly are a force to be reckoned with. 

It is not only the U.S. who has been importing Japanese players, however. More than one Yankee has set sail for the Land of the Rising Sun to see his career rise. Mr. Baseball takes its fish-out-of-water story and does very little with it.

Arrogant Yankee superstar Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) is having a career slump. Once a World Series champion all-star, Elliot now finds himself fading away to younger rising talents. The Yankees opt to trade him, but not to Cleveland as he fears. Instead, he is sent to the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball.

Elliot is highly displeased by this turn of events and is openly hostile to everything and everyone in the Dragons organization. His translator Yoji (Toshi Shioga) does his best to give more acceptable translations to Elliot's horrors, but he too grows frustrated by his client's intransigence on matters. No one can help Elliot: not Yoji, not Max "Hammer" Dubois (Dennis Haysbert), the only other American on the team, and not Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), the Dragons' gruff manager who is himself a NPB legend. Elliot will listen to no one, even after everyone tells him that he has a hole in his swing. 

Elliot continues to meet personal indignities, though things look up with the beautiful Hiroko (Aya Takanashi), the Dragons' marketing director. Though Elliot is displeased at having no say in being marketed for Japanese television ads, he eventually finds that there will be, to use her term,  "funny/monkey" business with Hiroko. There are more twists and turns as Elliot finally accepts things as they are, some romantic, some baseball related. Will Elliot be able to overcome Uchiyama's myriad objections regarding both his baseball playing and Hiroko? Will he be able to make a comeback to the United States?

This may be the strangest criticism against Mr. Baseball, but Tom Selleck seems too nice for the role. It is not that he is a bad actor overall. It is that he is not believable as Jack Elliot in the film. Selleck may be right for the part physically. However, he never showed that he could be this arrogant jerk that made Elliot's transformation believable. 

Take his opening statements to the press upon arriving in Japan. Gary Ross, Kevin Wade and Monte Merrick's screenplay (from a story by Theo Pelletier and John Junkerman) have dialogue that could make Elliot be more clueless than hostile. When asked why he is playing in Japan, Elliot replies, "I had a yen for playing here," an obvious pun in English. As directed by Fred Schepisi, his reply was too weak to be angry, too dumb to be accidentally silly. Mr. Baseball aims to make Elliot's comment be arrogant and dismissive, but Selleck delivers it not in an angry tone but more vaguely clueless, vaguely disinterested one. When asked what he thought of Japan, Elliot replies, "The airport's nice, I guess. And there's lots of little people walking and talking very fast".

This could have been funny if Elliot were nervous or dimwitted. However, the film clearly aims to have Elliot be angry and resentful. As delivered by Selleck, presumably under Schepisi's direction, it was surprisingly soft. These were not bitter comments, but they were not unaware comments either.

In retrospect, Mr. Baseball could have done better by making Elliot more clueless than hostile. It might have made the film funnier if Elliot were more prone to say idiotic things accidentally than say meanspirited things deliberately. This is especially true given that, again, Selleck came across as too nice to be hard. Granted, Selleck tried, but he never displayed more than a glowering dislike versus downright rage at his plight.

Mr. Baseball also has some unsurprising clichés, such as the Hiroko/Elliot romance. Oddly, the twist involving Hiroko and Uchiyama is not surprising, though it is forced and illogical given how that connection never once came up until the plot required it to. Mr. Baseball could have been funnier if it had opted for certain changes. Along with the idea to make Jack Elliot more good-natured idiot than resentful player, more comedy could have come with a subplot involving Elliot and his put-upon translator Yoji.

You couldn't even throw in one "Yoji Berra" quip? 

There are other curious elements that were either unexplored or unexplained. Given Jack Elliot's ego, one would think he would be thrilled to be shilling Japanese products. A running gag could have been made of Yoji's translation troubles. When Elliot, for example, says that it is not over until the fat lady sings, Yoji tells the other players, "When the game is over, a fat lady will sing to us". Yoji's struggles to make sense of Elliot's statements could have made things amusing. Sadly, they opted not to try.

How exactly Jack Elliot of all the American players became "Mr. Baseball" (or Besuboru) is unclear, especially given that Max Dubois is already there. Oddly, only once do we see Elliot be with other expats. Again, introducing elements that never come up again seems a lost opportunity.

Haysbert is wasted in the film. It might have been better if Dubois and not Elliot had been the main character. Takakura and Takanashi did as well as they could as the gruff but shrewd manager and the marketing director who has a close connection to said manager.

I'll let you guess what that connection could be.

Mr. Baseball does have one strong positive. It gives us an insight into certain elements of Japanese baseball that are unfamiliar in the West. For example, Elliot is hit by a pitch, enraging him. However, he is told almost immediately that the pitcher has tipped his cap, indicating that it was unintentional. Despite being told this by his teammates during the game, Elliot still rushes the mound, accidentally clocking poor Yoji in the melee. Details such as these are why Mr. Baseball is a de facto training video for foreign players entering the diamond of the rising sun.

That is good, but not enough to make Mr. Baseball itself good. Mr. Baseball is good only in showing us the peculiarities of Japanese baseball. It might be worth revisiting in a remake. That would allow the film to decide which route to take with Jack Elliot: reformed jerk or clueless Yankee. As it stands, it does not go either way, much to the film's detriment. 

Mr. Baseball may be big in Japan, but it won't be going Stateside. 

DECISION: D+

2023 Opening Day Film: Angels in the Outfield (1951)

2022 Opening Day Film: Bull Durham

2021 Opening Day Film: Alibi Ike

2020 Opening Day Film: Mr. 3000

2019 Opening Day Film: Ladies' Day

2018 Opening Day Film: Fear Strikes Out

2017 Opening Day Film: Eight Men Out 

The Iron Claw (2023): A Review

 

THE IRON CLAW

There are many people today who believe in "the Kennedy Curse", the idea that the Massachusetts political dynasty is fated to suffer great tragedies, the agony and the ecstasy as matriarch Rose Kennedy described it. There is another apparent curse on another family of renown. The Von Erich wrestling family, going on its third generation, is also plagued by the idea of a curse. The Iron Claw is their story, one of misery, failed expectations and more misery. 

Wrestling patriarch Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallaney) wants to move both his career and his family up to the upper echelons of life. He pushes his four living sons (his oldest, Jack Adkisson, Jr. having died in childhood) into the wrestling world, building a dynasty to challenge all newcomers. The oldest living son, Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) is the most proficient in the ring. The third son, David (Harris Dickinson) is the tallest, his height giving him strong advantage. The fourth, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) is the shortest, but is training for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The last son, Michael (Stanley Simons) is the outlier in this muscular clan, more interested in music than in the iron claw (the family's signature wrestling move). 

Nevertheless, Fritz will not be denied. The Von Erich boys have a mix of love, respect and probably fear of Fritz. Their mother Dottie (Maura Tierney) will not interfere between Fritz and the boys or really be involved with them, at one point informing Kevin that if he wants to discuss anything, that is what his brothers are for.

Kerry is forced to return to Texas when President Carter pulls the U.S. out of the Moscow Games, cutting his own dreams out. Soon, he too enters the family profession. Fritz sees to it that David and Kerry join Kevin in the ring, though not getting Mike into things for the moment. Kevin also manages to get married to Pam (Lily James), the only brother to do so or to have anything close to a life outside the ring.

Fritz feels frustrated in not achieving the ultimate prize of a world heavyweight championship and knows his sons can bring the belt home. However, this goal is deadly for almost all the Von Erich boys. David's career is quickly ended when he dies suddenly due to a ruptured intestine while on tour in Japan. Kerry does win the belt, but drunkenly drives out, causing him to lose his right foot. Mike seems ill-suited for the profession, being thin and generally gentle in spirit. The Von Erich legacy, however, pushes him to dip his toe into the ring with disastrous results. A freak shoulder injury leads to toxic shock during surgery, leaving him in a coma. Barely surviving that, he seems mentally incapacitated and frustrated.

By now, Kevin's paranoia about a "Von Erich curse" is so great that he insists on his children carrying the family legal surname of Adkisson to avoid said curse and moving away from Pam. Curse or no curse, the Von Erich boys are consumed by tragedy. First Chris and later Kerry commit suicide. Kevin's injuries are emotional rather than physical, but no less crippling. After Kerry's suicide, Kevin finally agrees to sell the family's wrestling organization despite (or perhaps because of) Fritz's fierce opposition. Kevin can heal, and Dottie can now go back to painting, her long-lost passion rekindled.

I am not a wrestling fan, but I must admit that the Von Erich name does echo in my memories. The Iron Claw would be a good introduction to this fabled family, but perhaps writer/director Sean Durkin loves the subjects too much to let us fully into their world. I admit to sometimes getting muddled as to which brother was which save for Kevin. I think that is due to how The Iron Claw gave us bits of David, bits of Kerry, and bits of Mike but they still were a bit opaque. Apart from preferring music to smacking stronger men, what got Mike to join in the family business? A sense of guilt over David's death? Intense pressure from Fritz? A combination?

What pushed Kerry to kill himself? We get a very bizarre to downright creepy scene where Kerry goes into a sunset world where he reunites with David, Chris and even Jack whom he never met. The overt symbolism of leaving a coin on the boat, like if he was paying an invisible Charon, is troubling to me. I could not shake the idea that somehow this was almost encouraging suicide in the idea that it is a good way to reunite with loved ones dead and gone.

I am absolutely positive that this was nowhere near Durkin's intention, or anyone involved in The Iron Claw's intention. However, the entire scene, even if it is Kevin's vision, still felt very disconcerting to me.

The Iron Claw also makes the case that rather than a curse, it was a collection of poor decisions that led to the Von Erichs myriad of miseries. David was aware that he was ill. Kerry went out driving after having celebrated his victory (which we did not see but just heard announced). As we see shots of the highway, one already knows he is bound for trouble. The next scene immediately jumps to back injuries. We are not surprised when we see Kerry using crutches. The big surprise is when we see him without a foot. Chris' dilemma of going into the ring, barely touched on if that, comes and goes.

Sometimes, The Iron Claw is surprisingly quiet and removed from things. The search for Chris is literally kept at a distance. After seeing him swallow so many pills and wash it down with alcohol, I was genuinely surprised that he was able to leave the house. Try as the film did, I never could muster much interest in this dysfunctional family.

That is not to say that The Iron Claw does not have some positives in it. This is probably Zac Efron's best work to date. As Kevin, we do see in Efron's performance Kevin's inner struggle to be the man his father aspires him to be as well as his terror of the Von Erich curse. He is more than matched by James' Pam, though I think it was a mistake to sideline her for long stretches to where I forgot she was in the film. Same with Tierney, for Dottie was both not a major figure and almost maddeningly mysterious. Whatever her feelings or emotions at the loss of so many of her children, or how her faith helped her, are not shown or answered.

Curiously, while the film suggests that the family had some kind of faith system to sustain them, whatever it was apparently played no part in their lives. They can have crosses around the house and attend Services, but judging by the film it was not important to them. 

The Iron Claw also does well in capturing the aesthetic of the late 1970s and early 1980s wrestling broadcasting, down to less bombastic but still grand pre-and-post match interviews. The spectacle of even lower-tier wrestling was well shown. We also get a nice scene where in David's debut, tag-teaming with Kevin, their opponents go over with them prior to the match how things will go. 

It is not all perfect here, however. Aaron Dean Eisenberg's efforts at playing Ric Flair did not go over very well. Even with my limited knowledge of wrestling, I was nowhere near convinced that Eisenberg's performance could match the real Flair's theatricality or Flair on any level.

The Iron Claw wants to be a tribute to the troubled Von Erich family. It, I imagine, also wants to delve into their world. I still feel a bit left out of things. I think a documentary would have done better. 

 

DECISION: C-

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956): A Review

 

SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Paul Newman.

Paul Newman's first film, The Silver Chalice, was a lifelong embarrassment for him. So horrified was he by the experience, he turned down the lead in 1959's Ben-Hur by saying he would never again act "in a cocktail dress" (meaning Roman-era period costumes). His film career seemed pretty much over before it began. However, like the central character in Somebody Up There Likes Me, Newman's third film turned out to be the charm. 

Growing up unloved and abused by his father, young Rocco Barbella is forever fighting the world. Running with a group of Lower East Side New York hoods, Rocco goes from juvenile hall to reform school to Riker's Island, with only his mother (Eileen Heckart) to care and worry about him. Rocco eventually appears to finally be going straight; however, he is immediately drafted into the Army upon his release.

Rocco, still too stubborn or stupid or both to understand, gets into fights with his Army superiors and eventually goes AWOL. Remembering an old prison mate who told him he could help him out if he did a little boxing, Rocco goes to the gym and immediately impresses trainer Irving Cohen (Everett Sloane). Adopting the name Rocky Graziano (Paul Newman), Graziano's raw talent makes him a standout. Cohen is puzzled by Rocky's refusal to train and his insistence on leaving right away. Eventually found out, Rocky is sent to Leavenworth for a real and dishonorably discharged.

Rocky, however, goes back to boxing, with Cohen eager to welcome back his protege. He soon starts making a name for himself, and even marries Norma (Pier Angeli), a nice Jewish girl with whom he builds a life. Rocky, however, can't outrun his past, where his old frenemy threatens to blackmail him if he does not throw a fight. Rocky refuses, but it still costs him. Will Rocky rebuild his life and career to become the middleweight champion of the world?

While Newman forever bore a grudge against The Silver Chalice, he appears not to have held one against his The Silver Chalice costar Pier Angeli, with whom he reunited for Somebody Up There Likes Me. In a curious turn, Angeli's former lover, James Dean, was originally set to play Graziano before Dean's unexpected death. That tragedy allowed Dean's contemporary Newman to take the role. One can only wonder what James Dean would have done with the role of this volatile boxer.

I imagine that Dean would have been better than Newman. I think Newman went wildly overboard in his portrayal of Graziano, more focused on Graziano's mannerisms and cadence than in finding the man himself. Newman came across as a walking Italian American stereotype: the goombah who was always angry and quite dim. I could never shake the idea throughout Somebody Up There Likes Me that Newman was simply trying too hard to be this tough-talking, brawling, uneducated guy. In a montage between Rocky's rising career and family life, he tells an acquaintance, "Can I help it if she's pregnant?", to which he can only sheepishly raise his shoulders and give an equally sheepish look when he realizes what he said. 

As I said, Newman was forever making Graziano a total goombah. That might be how the real Graziano spoke and moved, but I found Newman's performance too calculated to be natural, which is ironically what I figure Newman was going for. 

Newman veered dangerously close to parody with his Graziano. At one point, an officer says, "I gather from your records that you are from New York City". I asked myself why Barbella's massively thick and broad "Nuw Yawk" accent did not clue him in to that fact. To my mind, it was as if Newman's physicality and mannerisms were so overt that Graziano the man got lost. Over and over again, I kept seeing a young actor playing a part, not being the character. To be fair to Newman, he was still very immersed in the Method style of acting and was still finding his sea legs in film. As such, it is not surprising that Newman focused more on his accent and body language than in a character.

This style of acting affected a few others, particularly Sal Mineo as Rocky's running partner. He too seemed more interested in affecting the Nuw Yawk accent and being a bit more deliberate in his performance. To be fair to Mineo, at least he was from New York versus Ohio's own Paul Newman. I found those who did not go all-in on the Method were more believable in their performances. A standout was Heckart as Ma Barbella. Forever worried about her wayward son, she seemed genuine in her agony versus Newman, who was acting very anguished. Sloane too did well as the confused but ultimately supportive trainer. 

Angeli did well as Norma, the woman who loves her man despite his struggles. She was more authentic than Newman, which says more about the level of Newman's Method manner with Graziano than about her. 

Somebody Up There Likes Me does well in the boxing matches and in getting the gritty world Graziano lived in. Once we get past the constant brawls Graziano got into, we got a good story. On the whole, Somebody Up There Likes Me is not bad, but it feels long. It also has a central performance that seems too calculated to appear real. Still, it is an acceptable introduction to both Paul Newman and Rocky Graziano.

1919-1990

DECISION: C+

The Champ (1979): A Review

 

THE CHAMP (1979)

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Joan Blondell.

On paper, a remake of the 1931 film The Champ looks like a winner. You have a great story, two Academy Award winning actors and a celebrated director. Somehow though, the 1979 version of The Champ does not quite hold up despite the cast and crew's best efforts. 

Billy Flynn (Jon Voight) is now a horse trainer, but he was once the heavyweight champion of the world. Booze and gambling and age all conspired to bring him down. His only bright spot is T.J. (Ricky Schroeder), his son who loves and worships "The Champ". 

Despite his generally irresponsible behavior, this time he came up a winner and won enough to buy T.J. a horse that they name She's a Lady. They enter She's a Lady in a Hialeah race, where two women are also attending. One is a rival horse owner, Dolly Kenyon (Joan Blondell). The other is her friend, the wealthy Annie Phillips (Faye Dunaway). Annie soon realizes on seeing Billy that T.J., whom she has a friendly side bet, is the son she abandoned years before.

Annie wants to reconnect with Timothy Joseph Flynn, but Billy won't allow it. Eventually, Billy's irresponsible behavior and subsequent arrest push him to send T.J. to stay with Annie. She tries to bond with T.J. but after learning the truth, he runs back to Billy. Billy, determined to make a comeback for his son, goes to intense training and reaches a rapprochement with Annie. She goes to his big fight, where Billy both wins and loses, and T.J. and Annie now must find each other.

It is a bit difficult to judge The Champ given that I have seen the original and found that version to be brilliant. It is not impossible to make a good remake, but I think the primary reason that this The Champ stumbles is that it loses its focus. The Champ should be about the Billy/T.J. relationship, but whole scenes revolve around Billy and Annie and their relationship. It is, perhaps understandable why The Champ made that decision: Voight and Dunaway were at the peak of their drawing power at this point in their careers.

That being said, The Champ loses steam whenever the film opts to make their fraught relationship, not T.J. with either Billy or Annie, what it thinks the viewer is interested in. It is almost as if Walter Newman's adaptation of the original film thought The Champ was about Billy himself, not Billy with T.J. 

Newman also did a very curious thing: it made Billy almost wholly sympathetic. He is almost always a good guy, not a good but flawed guy. Take for example when Billy steals T.J.'s boxing glove piggy bank. What could have been a revelation of Billy's gambling addiction at the expense of the son he genuinely loves is if not quite dismissed at least downplayed. There is no real struggle for Billy, no sense of regret or emotional turmoil at having essentially robbed his son. 

As such, one wonders if it was a good decision by both Newman and director Franco Zeffirelli to make Billy, not saintly but not a fool either. There is a scene in the middle of The Champ where T.J. delightedly tells Billy about his day with Annie, which culminated in a gift of a saddle. As T.J. is wrapped up in reciting the day's frolics, we see Billy toss the small stuffed panda he had won on the boardwalk aside. One knows what Newman and Zeffirelli were going for. One also knows they were trying too hard and were too obvious with the subtext.

I also wonder if The Champ made a mistake with some of its casting. It is not to say that Voight, Dunaway or Schroeder gave bad performances. Far from it: each did well in varying degrees. Voight was probably the weakest. He seemed to be trying too hard to be this semi-educated figure. Moreover, in a curious criticism, he seemed too athletic and physically strong to be this washed-up boxer. He did have some good moments with Schroeder, but on the whole Voight again seemed too determined to play the part versus being the part.

Dunaway was quite glamorous, but she brought an intelligence and regret to her role as the lost mother. Like with Voight, her best scenes were with Schroeder. That leads me to think that Schroeder was the standout in The Champ. His mop-top hair and wide eyes were effective in making T.J. this innocent who adored his father. His initial rejection of Annie too is heartbreaking, as is his final scene with her. I do not know if the lisp I heard was deliberate or unintentional, but it adds to the innocence of T.J.

It is a shame that Blondell was pretty much left out of things. Rather than just be a wealthy friend of Annie's (T.J. said of her, "She's rich but she's also very nice"), she could have been T.J.'s grandmother, bringing a bit of fire and sarcasm along with some motherly wisdom and caring. 

The Champ is a good story that might benefit from a second remake. The first one does try but does not quite succeed. It might get an "A" for effort, but it's no knockout. 

DECISION: C-

The Champ (1931): A Review (Review # 1730)

 

THE CHAMP (1931)

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Jackie Cooper.

The Champ, in some ways, is slight and manipulative. However, it is hard not to respond to this story of the love between a father and a son.

Andy Purcell (Wallace Beery) may be a washed-up ex-world heavyweight boxing champion, but to his son Dink (Jackie Cooper), he is a hero he always calls "Champ". Dink is not blind to Champ's flaws: his drinking, his inability to keep his word, his gambling and related financial irresponsibility. Dink is accepting of them, however, seeing the good, caring, and loving father Champ is. 

After buying a racing horse Dink names "Little Champ" to make more money, Champ is startled to see Linda (Irene Rich), his ex-wife and Dink's mother. Linda has remarried the wealthy Tony (Hale Hamilton) and has a daughter, but Champ is the one with legal custody. Linda and Tony pressure Champ to if not let Dink live with them, to at least start opening a relationship between Dink and Linda.

Champ agrees, eventually pushing Dink away for what he thinks is his own good. Despite how good Tony, Linda and his half-sister are to Dink, he still yearns to be with Champ. Running away to Tijuana to reunite with Champ, Dink's return revives Champ for him to make his comeback, clean and sober. The fight, however, takes everything out of Champ, and we see that while Dink has something of a happy end, it won't be with his beloved Champ.

I understand that one of Jackie Cooper's greatest appeals to contemporary audiences was his ability to cry. He certainly did a lot of crying in The Champ, though his character has reason to. He sees his beloved horse sold off, which is a sad moment given how attached he was to Little Champ. A more painful moment is when Champ pretends to reject Dink to send him to Linda.

As Cooper and Beery play off each other, it is near impossible not to be moved by both their performances. Major credit should be given to King Vidor in his directing of Beery and Cooper, especially the latter given how hard such strong performances can be for child actors. 

Beery, who tied with Fredric March that year for Best Actor*, really gets you in this scene. We see that Champ really loves Dink, the one good thing he has but which he keeps failing at. As he resorts to physically pushing Dink away, it is the audience that also is crying. 

Cooper completely breaks your heart in The Champ. It is Dink's total belief and devotion to Champ that makes his performance so beautiful. Cooper is so good in selling Dink's innocence with an acceptance and tolerance of Champ's faults, flaws and failings. 

The last scene where he tries desperately to rally Champ as his father is dying is absolutely heartbreaking. "Ain't you proud of your old man now?", a worn-out Champ asks. "Ah, gee Champ, I always was," is Dink's answer. Champ tells him his familiar refrain of "Keep your chin up," pushing Dink's head upwards. As Cooper tearfully forces a smile, we are aware that Champ has died. Dink's overwhelming grief simply tears at the viewer. No matter how everyone around him tries to console him, Dink's cries of "I WANT CHAMP!" grip you. 

This scene is an excellent showcase not just for Beery and Cooper. It is also a clever character reveal in Francis Marion's Oscar-winning original story. For most of The Champ, Dink calls his parents "Champ" and "Linda". In this final scene, however, Dink for the first and probably only time calls Andy "Daddy", and upon seeing Linda, tearfully cries out, "Mother!". It's an excellent but subtle display of how Dink has evolved. 

The Champ is also quite surprising in how it treats the minor character of Dink's best friend Jonah (Jesse Scott). Apart from someone mentioning that Jonah is "colored", no mention is made of Jonah's race. More surprisingly for the time, Jonah being black has no impact on how everyone around him treats Jonah. He is easily welcomed as Dink's best friend and occasional helper, treated as an equal by Dink, Champ and everyone else. It is a small thing, but a good sign for how things should have been. 

If there is a flaw in The Champ, it is from the performances of Rich and Hamilton as Linda and Tony respectively. While the film does well to show that they are genuinely loving to Dink, Rich comes across as a bit more theatrical in her manner. That, however, should be seen as how early sound film acting was with some actors. Hamilton at times was a bit too jovial, but perhaps that is more the character than the actor. 

The Champ should be shown every Father's Day, as it is a beautiful film about that great bond between a dad who struggles and the young man who loves and idolizes him. You can love your father without being blind to his failings, and The Champ, with standout performances from Beery and Cooper, gives one that truth so well-told. 

*Technically, Beery was one vote short of tying March, but the Academy rules at the time stated that if there was a three-vote difference between first and second, it was considered a tie. The rules were later amended to where it had to be an exact tie for there to be two winners. 

DECISION: A-

Air (2023): A Review

 

AIR

The machinations of big business get a surprisingly upbeat look in Air, the story of how Nike got an up-and-coming sports player to their product and dominate the market. 

Nike basketball shoe division executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is struggling to find the budget and the marquee player to save the floundering division. Over loud objections from VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and Nike CEO Philip Knight (director Ben Affleck), Sonny pushes hard for a bigger budget and pursuit of third-round NBA draft pick Michael Jordan.

Jordan leans strongly towards rival company Adidas, but Sonny is convinced that Jordan is worth pursuing. Coming up with the idea of building the shoe around Jordan rather than merely attaching a particular style to him, Sonny is relentless. He even, again over loud objections from Jordan's agent David Falk (Chris Messina) goes over everyone's head and makes his pitch to Jordan's mother, Deloris (Viola Davis).

Mrs. Jordan surprisingly agrees to have Nike court her son, as do Adidas and Converse. Now Sonny, Strasser and fellow Nike executive Howard White (Chris Tucker) must come up with both a pitch and a shoe to get Jordan to sign. Will shoe designer Pete Moore (Matthew Maher) get his "Air Jordans" to win over the young player? Will Nike outwit and outlast bigger, wealthier companies to be like Mike?

Air, on the surface, looks like a surprisingly boring story. Who could build up interest around shoes? What makes Air interesting is not so much the procedures to get Michael Jordan's endorsement. Rather, it is the humans behind the product. Each figure, from the driven Sonny to the eccentric Knight, have their own motivations in this mad pursuit of the unobtainable. While no doubt motivated by rich financial rewards, Air also shows that qualities like pride in work and desire to achieve in their own world can be equal drivers.

Perhaps the most moving story is that of Strasser. He can yell and be stubborn in his obstinance with Sonny, but we also see the people behind the marketing. Via Alex Convery's screenplay, Bateman gives a quiet monologue relating how his job is the only entry he has to visitations to his daughter post-divorce. Even if the company shuts down the basketball division, he says, he would continue buying a pair of shoes to bring her.

That and another silent scene where Sonny sees all the employees at their jobs brings to focus that the intricacies of finance and marketing have people behind them. They depend on these jobs to provide for themselves and their families. The jobs also give them a purpose, and it is that focus on the individual that pushes Air into a strong, smart film.

Even Mrs. Jordan sees that the Nike deal is not about dollars and cents alone, but his worth. His actual worth. Air reveals that things like respect, the individual's value and commitment to an idea and ideal is as important as what the cash results are.

I think that Ben Affleck is a better director than actor. Out of his filmmaking efforts, only Live by Night has been a failure. Affleck will almost always cast himself in his own films (Gone Baby Gone being the exception, though to be fair his brother Casey is the lead). This time, he is the supporting character, and this time Affleck did better than when he is the center of attention. His Phil Knight is casually eccentric, meaning that we hear bits about Buddhism but nothing that shows his offbeat brand of genius.

While not a bad performance, Affleck shrinks next to the rest of the cast. Damon brings that everyman quality as Sonny, determined, driven, aware he is right but with no one listening. Bateman and Davis are the real strong figures here. The former portrays Strasser as committed but not eager to take chances. The latter displays a quiet strength coupled with a shrewd mind.

Kudos should also go to Messina, whose rants had audiences in laughter but for the right reasons. Unsung is Julius Tennon as James Jordan, Michael's father. Amiable, affable and eager, he is a jolly figure throughout the film.

I think Air was maybe longer than it should have been (it runs almost two hours). It also does all but hide Jordan (we never see his face and he says three words: "Bulls colors" on seeing his new shoe and "Hello" over the phone at the end) but those are minor complaints. Well-paced, well-acted and with a story that grows on you, Air may not make me want to be like Mike, but you do end up wanting to cross over into the world of Jordan. 

DECISION: B+

Creed III: A Review (Review #1704)

 

CREED III

As of this writing, I have memories of Creed and did not see Creed II. With that said, I went into Creed III with some vague ideas of what had gone on before. Creed III in its almost two-hour runtime says a lot, but doesn't say much.

Adonis Creed (director Michael B. Jordan) is on top of the world, his last fight a successful one and ready for retirement. His beautiful wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) are his world. His boxing training center is his business. Now, however, the past has
caught up to him, in the form of Damian "Dame" Anderson (Jonathan Majors).

Twenty years ago, Damian was the king of underworld boxing, with Adonis as his running buddy. A crime, however, sent them on different paths: Adonis eventually to his biological father's family, Damian to prison. Now, Damian wants another shot to box again. Creed gives him that chance by being the sparring partner to his newest protege, but Dame's rough manner is a harbinger of things to come.

Dame gets his chance through some shady means, and now Dame is after Creed. Adonis will now have to come out of retirement to challenge his frenemy in an epic battle for more than the heavyweight championship of the world. 

I am not sure who came up with some of the decisions in Creed III, but they were a bit curious. Screenwriters Zach Baylin and Keenan Coogler (whom I suspect is related to Ryan Coogler, who has a story by credit and is one of Creed III's producers) apparently just looked at some Rocky movies and decided to take some elements for the film.

Damian, for example, is a variation of Rocky III's Clubber Lang. The intense fighter whose fight puts the rival's life in danger has a touch of Rocky IV to it. Granted, the difference is that unlike Rocky IV, Damian's challenger Felix Chavez (Jose Benavides, Jr.) is not killed in the ring. However, he is more plot device than genuine character given that outside a quick appearance at the Creed/Anderson bout, he is not mentioned again.

It would have been impossible to play that angle since Creed II already brought about the sons of Rocky IV's Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. Curiously, Ivan Drago, Jr.'s withdrawal from the fight appears inspired not by the Rocky films but by all things I, Tonya.

Even by its curious universe, Creed III asks its audience to believe simply outlandish things. There is no way that Damian, fresh out of prison, would not only get a bout against the reigning heavyweight champion but that said match would draw massive crowds and a big pay-per-view audience. Creed III does depend on implausibility and idiocy from the characters.

For example, Damian tells Adonis that he wrote to him while in prison. Adonis says he never got these letters, but not once until either shortly before or after his father's wife Mary Anne (Phylica Rashad) passes did it ever occur to him to so much as look, let alone ask.

It also has first-time director Jordan do something that many first-time directors, particularly actors-turned-directors, go for. There is an unfortunate habit of focusing more on the visuals than on the performances, and Creed III did this. The climatic fight between Adonis and Damian devolves into some bizarre almost anime-like sequence. The visuals, where a metaphorical cage descends on them as they shifted from Dodgers Stadium to a netherworld, has as its purpose to just call attention to itself.

A odder situation is when the Creed family is having dinner. The scene is so dark it becomes hard to see what is going on, a strange decision by Jordan. Quoting the music from Rocky does not help in trying to break away from the Rocky mythos and having the Creed series stand on its own. 

The performances were fine though unmemorable. Jordan has good moments with Davis-Kent, though in another aspect of Creed III's habit of not mentioning things, she gets into a fight with a bully, and this is never brought up again. Rashad's last scene where in her stroke-addled confusion mistakes Adonis for Apollo is also effective, a credit to Rashad.

I think Creed III is an acceptable crowd-pleaser if you care about this Rocky spinoff. I cannot say I was enthusiastic about it, but I can't find much to say I hated it. 

DECISION: C-