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Posts from the ‘sports’ Category

Apr 3

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Million Dollar Baby

As well-crafted and well-acted as Million Dollar Baby is, it can’t quite shake the trappings of similar “issue” movies and drags as it works toward the inevitable conclusion. The Clint Eastwood picture won the Best Picture Oscar, with the filmmaker also picking up Best Director, Hilary Swank winning Best Actress and Morgan Freeman winning Best Supporting Actor.

The screenplay comes from Paul Haggis, whose work has sometimes been very good at handling issues (In the Valley of Elah) and sometimes very manipulative (Crash). Million Dollar Baby falls in the latter camp. While it begins well, the road it takes as it nears the famed and much-ballyhooed conclusion is surprisingly bland. The attempts to sensitively handle a serious issue become games of one-upmanship, with increasingly more problems paving the way to soften the inevitable blow.

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Mar 25

Tyson

I don’t know much about James Toback, really, but his 2008 documentary Tyson had me reeling from the opening bell. The movie is essentially a first person account of boxer Mike Tyson’s life and experiences told by the man himself, but the way Toback weaves the interviews and the footage is simply masterful. He creates a conflicted, monstrous, oddly sympathetic portrait of one of the most fascinating figures in sports.

One of the possible critiques with Toback’s Tyson is that there is no other side of the story, as Tyson is given 100% of the interview time. Save for the commentary of television announcers in some stock footage, the only narration and the only guiding light to this tale of woe is the boxer. The resulting stream of consciousness is fascinating and contradictory, giving us a pigeon’s eye view into the life and madness of this man.

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Dec 19

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The Blind Side

I’ve yet to really be captured by a movie that fits in the sports/inspirational class and 2009’s The Blind Side didn’t change that. Based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, this John Lee Hancock film does little to escape the formulaic nature of the genre and doesn’t particularly give anything of depth or interest.

The Blind Side never tries to do too much, which is its downfall. It tells the story of Michael Oher and the wealthy white Christian family that took him in and saved him from certain disaster in the ghetto. However offensive or stereotypical one might find the story, it is based on true events and the characters are based on real people.

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Jun 8

The Boxer

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Jim Sheridan is pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to movies about Ireland. The Dublin-born director started things off with the brilliant My Left Foot, establishing a working relationship with Daniel Day-Lewis at the outset. The two would collaborate again with 1993’s In the Name of the Father. Their third collaboration, The Boxer, stands as a bleak and desolate piece about change and the hunger for peace in Ireland.

Day-Lewis is Danny Flynn, a member of the IRA with a promising boxing career. His life was put on hold when he was imprisoned at the age of 18 for his terrorist associations. The film picks up with Flynn finally leaving prison after 14 years. He refused to name his fellow IRA men, increasing the length of his prison term. Upon his release, Flynn is sent into a community that is attempting to negotiate peace with the British. Head IRA man Joe Hamill (Brian Cox) is trying to work out a peace agreement.

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Jan 21

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The Wrestler

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Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler is yet another spectacular picture from 2008. It is deeply emotional, personal, heart-rending, and compelling. It is also an enormously popular film despite its limited release, gathering large ticket sales wherever it is playing and generating Oscar buzz for Mickey Rourke, who already landed the Golden Globe for Best Actor. Luckily for fans of great movies everywhere, The Wrestler will see a wide release starting on January 23. See this movie.

The Wrestler is not about wrestling; it is about the emptying of one’s soul into existence. It is about work, it is about family, it is about loneliness, it is about age, it is about heartache. Rourke stars as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, but his real name is Robin Ramzinski. “Call me Randy,” he tells everyone. Randy is a professional wrestler – hence “The Ram” nickname – but he is twenty years past his prime. Back in the day, he was kind of a big deal. As we are introduced to The Ram, he wrestles on weekends in indie wrestling promotions and works a job at the supermarket to make ends meet.

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