GUEST COLUMN: Sports Films to Look Out for in 2020

(Image: variety.com)

by Thomas Glare

Everyone can agree that 2020 has been a tough year for the movie industry. Since going to the cinema wasn’t possible for a long period, the plans of big movie producers got affected, and many titles that were announced for 2020 were either postponed or canceled altogether. However, there are still some top sports films that were already launched or are coming to movie theaters later this year. So, if you’re looking for some good sports films, we made a list of the most promising productions launched this year. The offer isn’t exactly rich. However, it will take it’s no flash lightning either. 

---

Image: https://ift.tt/2BDR0NB

---

The Way Back – One of the Best Films for Basketball Fans

The Way Back opens this list of sports movies released in 2020, and it tells the story of Jack Cunningham, played by Ben Affleck. Jack is a former basketball player that lost everything after his wife died. Losing his foundation, he succumbed to addiction and decided to face his issues by returning to basketball as a coach. He manages to land a coaching job at his old high school that proves to be more about his fight to get back on his feet. The teenage students put Jack through several challenges, and the result is one of the best sports movies released this year. 

---

The Main Event

Sports fans also appreciate a good mix between sci-fi and sports movies, and The Main Event promises just that. Launched in April 2020, this movie tells the story of an 11-year-old kid that finds a wrestling mask with magical powers. He uses the mask to baffle everyone and enter a WWE competition with the support of his grandmother. Even though sports films based on true stories are usually what the directors go for in this genre, The Main Event comes with a different approach that fans appreciate. It proves that inspirational sports films don’t necessarily have to be based on a true story.

---

Image: https://ift.tt/2AKpqxy

---

High Flying Bird

Even though it was launched in 2019, High Flying Bird won its place on this list. The unique collaboration between Netflix and Steven Soderbergh resulted in an excellent sports-drama. With loads of sports films on Netflix, High Flying Bird comes with a fresh approach exploring the story of Ray Burke, a sports agent in a company that goes through a lockout. Afraid that he will lose his job, Ray looks for a way to make himself valuable for the company. He comes up with the idea that does not only save his company but can change the way sports look. High Flying Bird is an intense drama that also asks a lot of questions about how things happen around the entire sports culture. While Soderbergh is known for his innovative plots and watertight development of the story, he outdid himself in this collaboration with Netflix. 

---

Ride Like a Girl

If you were expecting to find upcoming British films about sports on this list, we are afraid you will be disappointed. The British movie industry doesn’t seem to draw much inspiration from their rich sporting culture. However, we end the list of top sports films with Ride Like a Girl, an Australian biographical sports drama. The movie is inspired by the life story of Michelle Payne, the first woman in history to win the Melbourne Cup in 2015. Even though the film received mixed critics from fans, it offers a glimpse into the struggles of a woman in a sport dominated by men. Sure, it doesn’t approach a lot of the controversy surrounding the horse racing industry altogether. However, it’s still a great title to watch if you’re looking for determinations, passion, and grit displayed by an athlete.  

---

Image: https://ift.tt/2zaOq0I

---

If you were expecting more sports films to be launched in 2020, you’re not the only one. Unfortunately, 2020 isn’t a good year for the movie industry altogether. However, with all the changes to sports events in 2020, we should enjoy a much richer 2021. 

What’s your favorite sports movie? We encourage our readers to reply in the comments section and share their go-to sports films. As you know, sharing is caring, and you can help lots of other readers watch movies they missed for various reasons.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Glare is a freelance copywriter that focuses on the movie industry mostly. However, with not so many movies being launched recently, you may find him looking for lightning link free coins on the internet. He’s collaborating with several online publications, and the legend says there’s no sports film he didn’t watch. 

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG - Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/2XBFqv5

Share:

Read More

‘Intolerance No More’ September Street Date

The Film Deals with the Topic of Police Brutality Random Media has acquired EMMY award-winner Sergio Guerrero Garzafox’s (A Day Without a Mexican) drama-thriller film Intolerance No More, with a street date of September 15, to coincide with Mexican Independence Day. The female-led feature, inspired by today’s news, stars Paulette Patterson, Christina Morrell, Lizza Monet […]

The post ‘Intolerance No More’ September Street Date appeared first on Movie Marker.

from Movie Marker https://ift.tt/2A2z8eP

Share:

Read More

SHORT FILM REVIEW: Cherish

(Image: Boomstick Films and YouTube)

CHERISH-- 3 STARS

For swift storytelling in the artistic medium of short films, every word counts. The time to both make an impression and speak the desired narrative is scarce. One must say a great deal with little. To that end, go ahead and count body language as double or even triple the value to dialogue. Cherish, the new Chicago-set short film from the Splatter Brothers filmmaking team of Lionel Chapman and Ira Childs earns strong merit from both the said and unsaid on a multitude of levels.

A middle-aged man arrives through the front door of his home. He enters with a sigh and a mouth wipe while kicking off his shows. For most folks, this is a time of release and relief. For this man, it is as if the presumed comfort of home equals entering a sharp place of thorny distress instead. The actor, Shawn Wilson, presents this arrival without saying a word while melancholy music plays. That’s simple and effective body language. Start tripling that value.

This man’s name is Shane and he pauses before trudging upstairs to dial a readily available contact from his phone. The call goes straight to the voicemail greeting of the teenage-voiced Shayna. Shane leaves no message and pulls his phone down. Just hearing this causes emotion, one we cannot fully read, but it’s not positive. As he trudges upstairs to a bedroom and sits, he dials the number again with a quivering hand and an even more trembling face.

LESSON #1: THE PAIN OF SOLITARY REGRET-- Again, Shawn Wilson has uttered no words and he doesn’t have to. All people have felt regret and know it when we see it. This man sits broken and alone. When he gazes over to photographs on the dresser of a woman and a girl, memories flash taking Cherish back to the roots of this pain.

LESSON #2: MAKING LIFE ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN-- Through flashback, Cherish introduces Shane’s wife Jasmine (Anita Nicole Brown) as she’s packing up to leave him. The sting jumps to the aftermath of shared custody time with their daughter Shayna, our future voicemail greeting and emotional trigger played by Mikayla Boyd. Father and daughter are contentious and do not respect each other’s hardships and sacrifices. 

In a mere eight minutes, Ira Childs and Lionel Chapman present a cautionary family tale sturdy enough to perforate an empathetic soul. In her pair of moments sharing the setting and screen with Wilson, Mikayla Boyd gives a very animated performance as a jaded teenager who cannot see or understand Lesson #2 that every parent constantly struggles with. Her conviction is more than convincing.

This is where Cherish’s strong foundation of valuable body language gives way to economic dialogue. In an extended two-part conversation, the strife is crystal clear. No massive family histories or long-winded storms are needed. The editing of Makeya Barr-Johnson and Joey Domenick follow the argumentative volleys back and forth until their breaking point. Through it all, we come to know why this film is titled Cherish and not Regret.

LESSON #3: THE DEFINITION OF “CHERISH”-- The dictionary reminds of three different connotations of “cherish.” It means to “cultivate with care and affection,” which is spoken like a true parent. The word describes someone or something to “hold dear.” Lastly and most powerfully, cherish means “to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely.” The events that led to the regret of this story feed and remind all three for the solitary Shane. The feeling of “cherish” is much better when shared. Cherishing only a memory is only half the fulfillment.

Thanks to 2019’s Loyalty, the Splatter Brothers are starting to garner attention and awards on the festival circuit. Tackling heavy drama like this in Cherish is a worthy follow-up. Their namesake may elicit a thirst for blood, but what they really hit is the marrow. The way these writers and filmmakers can capture honest and domestic soul and vitality in such contained bursts is really something. Future film festivals deserve to honor that talent.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#884)

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG - Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/2MtNOGw

Share:

Read More

MOVIE REVIEW: Becky

Photo courtesy of Keri Anderson and Quiver Distribution

BECKY-- 3 STARS

The tale-of-the-tape of Becky is as preposterous as the promised twisted violence that follows. In one corner, you have the middle-aged comedian Kevin James taking a dare for his first “dramatic role” as the escaped Neo-Nazi criminal Dominick. He’s hulking, tatted-up, bearded, and armed with stern rhetoric and an itchy trigger finger.  In the other corner, you have the titular Millennial 13-year-old played by Lulu Wilson of The Haunting of Hill House. She’s angry, mournful over the passing of her mother, and, due to the home invasion circumstances than transpire, motivated for every hell-raising level of vindication possible. Before Bruce Buffer screams into a microphone, who do you got in this cutthroat clash that hits VOD June 5th?

To introduce this unlikely showdown in Becky, the slick editing of Alan Canant (Hellion) builds an establishing parallel between the two future opponents. A prison yard fight is spun against a bully’s skirmish in a school hallway. The ordered lineup of convicts mirrors the packed spacing of desks in a classroom. Her cutoff jeans and combat boot fashion choices figuratively match the ankle shackles being placed on him. They practically snarl into the confines of their respective transportation traps in the form of a minivan for her and a paddy wagon for him.

LESSON #1: BEING THE INSTIGATOR OR THE WITNESS-- In the cross-stitch of this opening, inferences can be drawn for which characters act and which ones react. Both Becky and Dominick witness their settings with eerily similar emotionless indifference. He provides shivs for killings. She shoplifts without a care in the world. Who will bring the brouhaha and who will boil it? It’s damn fun to find out.

Becky is a passenger on a forced lake house vacation with her widower father Jeff (fellow funnyman Joel McHale, also playing it straight). He has also invited his future fiance Kayla (Amanda Brugel of The Handmaid’s Tale) and son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe). Meanwhile, Dominick, and a trio of his follows (former wrestler Robert Maillet and TV actors Ryan McDonald and James McDougall) orchestrate an escape and descend on the rustic getaway looking for a MacGuffin item (a trinket key Becky holds dear from her mother) that requires them to keep witnesses alive who may know where it is.

The anarchic and amusing part is Becky doesn’t have that need whatsoever. Like Kevin McAllister before her and with far deadlier intent, she’s on her home turf and will just f--king kill you for even thinking about harming her family, teenage innocence be damned. Once the fight for survival is on, the violent obstacle course of wild encounters and jarring kills written by The Devil to Pay husband-wife team of Lane and Ruckus Skye and the debuting Nick Harris takes over set to the pulsating and edgy electronic score of Nima Fakhrara (The Signal).

LESSON #2: ANGER CAN BE USEFUL-- Jeff implores Becky that she “can’t be angry forever” for losing her mother to cancer and watching him find a new love. He adds “you can’t take things that aren’t yours” and “stop before someone gets hurt” warnings. His non-doting daughter’s icy answer while munching on her five-finger-discount gummy worm prize? “Obviously I can.” This is anger Becky is not letting go anytime soon, and it’s going to become mighty useful in her life for a few hours. Screw measly angst.

LESSON #3: THE LETHAL RESOURCEFULNESS OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT-- What does a kid have against hardened cons? Just a bunch of knick-knacks, art supplies, and garage junk. Want to see what ingenuity and injury this girl’s anger can apply to such items. Pull up a chair. At the same time, taste the salt grains that matches a line in the movie that states “sometimes someone does something so stupid you have to stop them and ask WTF.”

LESSON #4: GIRLS ARE MEAN-- If you must know, “girls” and “grisly” share five common letters where the extra “y” stands for “yowzers.” Eventually, Becky self-declares going from “bad” to “horrid” in the face of her crisis. That bedazzled denim jacket and backpack over Becky’s shoulders might as well be hidden wings for the Angel of Death.

LESSON #5: KILLING IS A STAIN-- Murdering kids is hard. Combine a kill-or-be-killed scenario with that pent-up anguish of Lesson #2 and you have a bloody barrage in Becky. The idyllic is broken by the insane. Violence seen is dark damage done on the mind and and heart. Violence committed is even worse. That is the height this movie rises too above simply a cheap slasher.

For most clicking play on Becky from Bushwick directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, they were likely drawn by Kevin James playing far against type. He embodies this intimidating menace decently considering the material. James doesn’t overplay the part as a loud screwloose, favoring maybe two too many sermon monologues instead. They work when they need to, though sometimes his snake oil carries too soft of pleasantries to be fully and fittingly evil. The real evil is cuter, louder, and shorter.

Lulu Wilson is frighteningly voracious. Appalling as the acts are, somewhere underneath that flaxen mop so often lit and framed by The Half of It and Light From Light cinematographer Greta Zozula lies a twinkle of creativity in Wilson. The actress out there roughing it with stunts even did her own art (now how about that) featured in the sets and credits of Becky. As Lulu Wilson poetically taunts “There was once a little girl…” before marking her quarry, we can only help but be impressed by the brazen energy. Well, this little girl chopped our feet off with the socks still on. No blowing was required.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#883)

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG - Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/3dy6sZS

Share:

Read More

MOVIE REVIEW: The Vast of Night

(Image courtesy of Amazon Studios)

THE VAST OF NIGHT-- 5 STARS

There exists a wide range of adjectives between the pleasurable place of “thrill” and unpleasant extreme of “terrify” that one could apply to stimulating movie experiences. Just like the films themselves from indies to blockbusters, joys or jitters come in all shapes and sizes. For the festival darling The Vast of Night being streamed on Amazon Prime, the proverbial needle of its excitement amplification lands on a very nifty word: TINGLES.

LESSON #1: THE DEFINITION OF “TINGLES”-- Merriam-Webster defines both the verb and noun form of “tingle” as a “slight ringing, stinging, prickling, or thrilling sensation.” The keyword there is “slight.” Tingles sneak up on you. They don’t punch, stab, or explode. They merely poke and linger. Tingles occupy a tenuous yet inviting middle ground because they could apply to fascination or fear equally.

The high-minded and engrossing science fiction yarn of The Vast of Night is all about accomplishing perfectly pitched tingles. With its auditory menace, patient suspense, and mounting wonderment, its level of quickened heartbeat and tightened nerves are just right for its inventions and intentions. The laurels, nominations, and awards from the Independent Spirit Awards and Slamdance, Overlook, and Toronto International Film Festivals wave off any need for big names and wayward assumptions. 

Framed as a Twilight Zone-like episode of “Paradox Theater” by rookie writers James Montague and Crag W. Sanger, the opening monologue narrates our slow zoom from a swanky, sunny living room into the vintage 1950s television screen where the nighttime setting expands in dimension and fleshed-out color. In the fictional town of Cayuga, New Mexico, seemingly the whole town descends on the local fieldhouse for a high school basketball showdown. After a little tour of small-town personalities and pleasantries, a chipper duo peels away from the big game for their necessary place of employment.

One is Everett (Jake Horowtiz), the evening DJ for the local WOTW radio station (there’s a sly salute in those call letters). He’s a smooth-talking slinger of idioms and alliteration with a disarming line and a clever nickname for everyone he meets. Tagging along is the other, the young lady named Kay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) who is the late shift switchboard operator for the phone lines. She’s a spirited straight arrow high schooler with an ambitious interest in science. Their professions make them (for their era) two tech-savvy cats.

LESSON #2: BEING AN OBSERVANT PRESENCE-- Each of these emerging protagonists command a listening ear for a living. Despite his gift of gab and her darling dither, both notice things with patience and stable nerves. Those traits lead to solid inquiry skills far ahead of others who would resort to panic or frenzy instead. If you’re used to movies where the confused make dumb choices just to advance a dangerous plot towards the danger, you will enjoy the gumption of The Vast of Night.

When Kay hears a strong and odd sound over the switchboard that interrupts Everett’s radio broadcast, it throws the two for a loop. When Everett publicizes the captured noise fishing for any listeners with more insight, he receives an on-air callback from a man named Billy (Bruce Davis) with an ominous personal account from his time working at a nearby military complex. His description of what he saw and heard give Everett and Fay cryptic pause. The reverberations of who could know more and what could happen next constrict the mystery more.

LESSON #3: MAKING A JUMP-- Escalation turns the observational capacities of Lesson #1 into sterner words and more perilous actions. With the initial challenge of “if you’re going to do it, do it,” the crackerjack hometown heroes of Kay and Everett reach points where they can no longer care about getting in trouble. Risks have to be taken and both Horowtiz and McCormick sell the smarts and surprises.

LESSON #4: WHEN THOUGHTS TURN TO BELIEF-- Throughout what transpires in The Vast of Night, ask yourself what it would take the pragmatic to go from thought to belief. Right alongside the risks, the logical Everett and sensible Kay are pushed beyond listening to heavier thinking. The secrets and absurdities they hear and witness which become more powerful and apparent morph both into true belief.

Every woven celluloid inch of this canny and calculating mindboggler is varnished with staggering production value coming from a beguiling level of economical filmmaking. Each artist on this film outdid themselves to demonstrate how to do seemingly infinite with little. Filmed in a handful of small towns in East Texas and Oklahoma, the stylish and impeccable recreations of the period aesthetics, right down to the smallest props, from The Standoff at Sparrow Creek team of production designer Adam Dietrich, art director Jonathan Rudak, and property master Elliott Gilbert are functional and phenomenal. Any edges to hidden modernity underneath are seamless. When needed, the special effects of Chris A. Wilks and the captured sound work of designer Johnny Marshall and mixer Erik Duemig escalate the locations.

The surface is only the beginning to how remarkable The Vast of Night moves. Several long takes steered by debuting director Andrew Patterson and editor Junius Tully freeze our focus. Little breaks and transitions back to that wavy black-and-white TV resolution drop in to remind the frame of where this story is transpiring. Those holds relent only to have cinematographer M.I. Littin-Menz (Resistance) hurl us through Cayuga with smooth approaches and trailing tracking shots of varying rapidity through lamplit streets, yards, windows, and more. The last pusher of pace is a bold and entrancing score from first-timers Erick Alexander and Jared Bulmer. Let its noise lift the hairs and goosebumps just right.

Between the look, feel, and stunning execution of this narrative enigma, it all adds up, again, to tingles from a magnificent genuflection to so many genre inspirations. Those who think tingles are too faint and feeble compared to full-on shock and awe haven’t felt legitimately good and unforced tingles in a while. There’s something special to be said when less becomes so much more and telling the unknown outweighs showing it until the right moments.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#882)

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG - Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/2TVqbLd

Share:

Read More

MOVIE REVIEW: End of Sentence

(Image courtesy of Gravita Ventures)

END OF SENTENCE-- 4 STARS

LESSON #1: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM DECISIONS OF LOVE-- There is a kindly and uplifting pair of lines delivered around the halfway point of the mournful road movie End of Sentence that sensationally encompass the different romantic crossroads people encounter throughout their lives. A young single woman with much of her life ahead of her turns to an upper-middle-aged widower who has learned new misgivings about the wife he lost and says “You might go on rides with the rebels. It’s the kindhearted ones we spend our lives with.” 

Gosh, that is such a smooth and stirring way to express something profound. Rarely veering to hardest of hard or the ugliest of ugly, there is much more of that homely wisdom to be had in Elfar Adalsteins’ debut feature film. Identifying the “rebels” from the “kind-hearted” is relatively easy. The challenges become to what degree agitation within the malcontent can be healed and where strength can develop next to grace in the kindly. End of Sentence is available on VOD from Gravitas Ventures and it is a worthy dramatic experience.

The tender and considerate core of this film is Frank Fogle played by Oscar nominee John Hawkes. Towering with slightness, he is the embodiment of old school courtliness despite coming from a hard southern background. With calm courage, Frank is bringing his cancer-stricken wife Anna (Andrea Irvine, in a short yet poignant role) to an Alabama correctional facility to not merely visit her incarcerated son Sean (the co-headlining Logan Lerman), but to say goodbye. It is not an easy meeting, even with hugs.

LESSON #2: “DON’T LET THE PAST CONTROL YOU”-- Anna’s parting words to Sean couldn’t be simpler. A final embrace and a “be kind to yourself” add more to her plea for rehabilitated purity. Months later when Frank arrives to pick up the released Sean, the testy indignation Anna feared within her son becomes clear. Every gnarled posture from Sean being around the father he calls by his first name instead displays discomfort and conflicted history. The body language of one patient and one restless says it all.

Sean is dead set on a warehouse job out west in Oakland that starts in five days when Frank implores him to travel to Anna’s native Ireland to spread her ashes on a special lake from her youth. It’s a releasing request framed by “do this trip and you never have to see me again.” In an uncomfortable clash of modesty and brashness, they agree to this trip. Their rented car for two grows to three if you include the urn and four if you count the hateful distance shared by father and son.

A head-turner that lifts this car and sweetens the occupied air is the fetching Jewel, an attractive roamer played by Sara Bolger (The Tudors). She is intrigued by the Fogle pilgrimage and offers to help them through the country and piece together some of the unearthed mysteries of Anna’s past. Past loves echo past mistakes and possibly new ones. Jewel is the woman feeling dignified enough to drop that dynamite profundity mentioned early while stepping forward in a pub to sing a lovely take on The Pogues’ “Dirty Old Town” with the locals not long after. 

LESSON #3: WISHES VERSUS PROMISES-- Dying wishes are passed from the departed to the surviving as necessary new promises. Their details compel people, sometimes legally and more emotionally than anything, to overcome any hurdle towards their completion. The trouble becomes the old adage of making promises you can’t keep. There are spoken and unspoken wishes and promises being conquered in End of Sentence that go far beyond those of the late matriarch.

LESSON #4: SHOW RESPECT TO GET RESPECT-- The gulf between Sean and Frank is one of respect, among the other lessons above. The elder Frank urges earning respect with actions whereas the harder Sean refuses to grant respect to just about anyone he meets. Even with Sean’s ticking clock of impatience, this trip is a test for him to re-learn respect. Still, true to life and less movie convenience, no one is ever mended of that kind of flaw in a few days. What we watch play out from first-time feature screenwriter Michael Armbruster is merely a start. 

Karl Oskarsson’s camera loves these subjects and their quiet quest. His well-placed wide shots embrace and establish the Emerald Isle with off-the-beaten path locations selected by Rossa O’Neill. None of End of Sentence is a Guinness commercial or a chipper travelogue. Karl’s lenses are also drawn to the loosening nerves and released constriction that came with the proximity of characters and attitudes that did not want to be around each other. As their growth swells, so does the film. A meaningful beat of that rises as well from a choice soundtrack of Irish ballads, including the one serenaded by Bolger.

The two lead actors accomplish the ever-present anguish wonderfully and honestly. Logan Lerman displays a twitchy toughness against the soothing chivalry countered by John Hawkes. These are excellent changes of pace from both performers showing the width of their ranges. End of Sentence is a mellow addition to Hawkes’ sizable resume that has not been shy about trying evil too. Similarly, this also counts as new, unforced grit from the rapidly maturing Lerman who has had a plentiful span of playing earnest before this. If their ages were reversed, each could play the other’s part with equal power and character immersion.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#881)

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG - Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/3cfomPn

Share:

Read More

‘No Turning Back’ Lands in June

The award-winning drama sci-fi film ‘No Turning Back’, starring Joseph Wycoff, Caroline Muller, Grace Goulter, and Kelaan Schloffel-Armstrong will release via Random Media on-demand and on all digital platforms June 22, 2020. Directed by Danny Phillips, from the award-winning films ‘Life is for Living’ and ‘Presentment’, ‘No Turning Back’ follows avionics engineer Nick Wilkinson who […]

The post ‘No Turning Back’ Lands in June appeared first on Movie Marker.

from Movie Marker https://ift.tt/3dkopLa

Share:

Read More