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Reviews
The Final Season (2007)
Poorly Done
I wanted to like this movie. Having lived in Iowa and knowing this story fairly well, and being a big baseball fan, I felt this would be enjoyable. It wasn't.
Sometimes the low budget films have a particular charm to them. This one lacked most of that. It was poorly pieced together as a bunch of anecdotes. They couldn't focus on crucial details. The music was too much, and the editing and acting were horrible, despite having big names.
But I think what bothers me the most were the little details they glossed over... small things. A few noticeable details:
-Norway was playing a school with "Vikings" on the jersey. But the stadium said, "Home of the Knights" (Norway was the Tigers)
-In the championship game, the umpires called literally every pitch from Ellis a "strike", when several were very, very much off the plate. They didn't write these to make it seem like they were bad calls (for example, no one in the crowd groaned at the calls).
-There were things pertaining to the baseball that makes one wonder if the writers have ever watched baseball? Let alone, 1A baseball in po-dunk Iowa... From things like the way the coach swung and managed to hit a massive home run or the effortlessness of a pitcher throwing 95 on the black.
It sounds petty, but I firmly believe that writers who do these things well do them because they take their audience seriously. I don't feel the writers of "The Final Season" took us seriously. And it shows.
Hearts Beat Loud (2018)
Simple, yet elegant
I saw the trailer on a YouTube thumbnail, watched it and was quickly captivated. I couldn't wait for it to become available for rent.
Nick Offerman was very good, his character a little typical though. A dad who lost his wife, is about to lose his record store and his daughter to the other coast. The willingness for him to move on and let his life change was an endearing theme, regardless of the schmaltz.
Kiersey Clemons was brilliant. A willing participant in her dad's desperate attempt to hold on tight, her performance expressed the devotion to her father, but with a spirit of freedom.
The music was beautiful and definitely made its way as the focal-point of the movie, and I think it's a solid win.
Great movie all around.
Kings (2017)
All over the place
If the movie's plot line was meant to match the chaos of the Rodney King riots, then kudos, you played me.
But the movie couldn't stay in one place. There were random kids introduced every seven minutes it seemed, the focus was always shifting (romance between Halle Berry's & Daniel Craig's characters; teenage black kid; teenage black girl; riots; shoplifting brother, etc.) It just jumped all around.
The Rodney King story is far too important to be made like this in movie form.
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (2017)
If journalists don't pat their own back, who will?
This was a well-produced and thoughtful piece that certainly caught my eye as I scrolled through Netflix. As a guy who follows journalism fairly close (as a hobby, not an occupation), I was certainly intrigued.
There were three problems I saw with the movie.
First, it was very one-sided. Sheldon Adelson, a Republican, is obviously a horrible, maniacal billionaire whose only reason to purchase a newspaper is to hide any negative press about himself. Nevermind all the Democrat billionaires who buy newspapers-Buffett, Bezos, John Henry. I'm sure their intentions are 100% pure and noble and they never try to use their newspaper to cover up stories? Mmhmm. Sure.
Second, it was just an attack on one person. I'm not a Trump supporter. I did not vote for him and will never vote for him. But the disingenuousness behind the documentary was insulting. We can talk about the effect the Hogan/Bollea case has on journalism without having to go the anti-Trump route. (Also note, they say nothing about Obama trying journalists under the Espionage Act).
But the bigger point to all this is that journalists actually think they are above any criticism. ANY story they come up with is newsworthy, important, and completely above reproach. And to criticize them is to slap the face of the most important arm of civil society. To question them is to question the fabric of society-which is obviously the journalists.
We can't question them, call them to the carpet for shady, unethical, or inappropriate uses of their positions, stories, or actions. And since the general public's faith in journalism is waning (many will contend it's all but gone), they have to pat themselves on the back.
Nobody is going to bat for the journalists anymore. And perhaps that's the bigger element for them: they see their impact on society decreasing, so they need pieces like this.
I found this to be an intriguing, yet troubling film.
A Mile in His Shoes (2011)
Really missed the mark...
"A Mile in His Shoes" was not the worst touchy-feely movie I've ever seen, but it definitely is not near the top (which speaks much to the amount of touchy-feely movies I watch)...
The movie has Dean Cain, which really means it has that one guy that you recognize but have no clue what his name is... you just know you've seen him in movies before. And honestly, he wasn't awful... I was actually expecting much, much worse.
In the movie, Dean Cain plays baseball coach Arthur Murphy, who coaches a local semi-pro team who seems to only play one team the entire movie... seriously, every game in this movie is versus a team from Fargo... there is no other opponent featured. Anywho... Coach Murphy is sent to talk to a young kid, Mickey, from Indiana who has Aspergers Syndrome, but his parents have no desire to have him play professional baseball. Mickey's only baseball "experience" was throwing apples at a metal pan on the farm, which should illicit any thinking person to ponder how they know about this kid and why they'd pay him to play professional baseball.
Anywho.... Mickey has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism, and they couldn't have missed the mark any worse than they did. As someone who has worked with kids with Aspergers Syndrome, it was actually kind of difficult to watch. Kids with Aspergers are generally very intelligent and often very poor in social skills... Mickey was quite the opposite on multiple fronts. Yeah, there are special cases, but if you're gonna make a movie about Aspergers, find a middle of the road type of example to work with... it just works better.
So Mickey plays on the team and is well liked and is actually pretty good. That's all I'll say about the synopsis of the movie.
I wasn't on the cast of this movie, nor do I know EXACTLY what it was they were trying to accomplish by making it, but I can't imagine it accomplished its purpose. I'm sure it was rather low budget (if not, their financial folks should be fired forever)... but that doesn't excuse making a poor example of a neurological disorder that is actually pretty important in our culture right now. From a production standpoint, outside of Dean Cain, the acting was awful. Mickey's dad, Clarence, was maybe the most painful acting performance I've had to watch in a while. The actor who played Mickey, Luke Schroder, was not good either... more training and coaching on how to act his role would have gone miles for this movie (pun very much intended).
My wife and I saw this movie on Netflix, and seeing the description, we decided to watch. We weren't upset we picked it—we would have turned if off otherwise—we just wish Aspergers Syndrome was portrayed better... and maybe, just maybe the movie wouldn't have been so bad.