sports

CHALLENGERS: three people and their desire

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Photo caption: Bill Faist, Zendaya and Josh O’Connor in CHALLENGERS. Courtesy of MGM.

Challengers is an absorbing and entertaining set of character studies, wrapped in a love triangle and set in the world of tennis.  Anything but a conventional sports movie, Challengers is remarkably insightful about what it takes to be successful in any competitive endeavor. Director Luca Guadagnino tells his story of three people over 13 years, flashing back and forth between their encounters in the present and roughly 8, 11, 12 and 13 years before.

When we first meet Tashi (Zendaya), she is a juniors champion about to dominate collegiate tennis and already a celebrity; she is clearly headed for Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan territory, where she will be the headliner whenever she competes and her endorsement revenue will dwarf her winnings.  Tashi is highly intelligent, beautiful, driven and confident, and, as a teen, is already an astute and clear eyed observer of human character.

Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Bill Faist) are, as most teen boys, much simpler.  They are classmates and besties.  Their tennis is not in Tashi’s stratosphere, but they are good enough to contend for the U.S. juniors doubles championship, and to realistically aspire to pro careers.

As tennis players, Patrick and Art are very equally matched.  But, then there is the matter of testosterone – too much (Patrick) and perhaps not enough (Art). 

Patrick has swagger – sometimes that of a charming rogue and sometimes that of a boor or bully.  There’s a saying in sports that is usually applied to baseball pitchers and football quarterbacks – “He has a million dollar arm and a ten cent head“.  That describes Patrick, who is too undisciplined to keep his temper in check and who has too much misplaced pride to accept coaching.

Art, on the other hand, is so  fundamentally decent that we wonder where his ambition comes from.  (Hint: it’s not from within Art himself.)

That’s what we come to learn about the three characters.  One of the keys to Challengers is when each character figures out the other two.  Tashi takes the measure of Patrick and Art with breathtaking rapidity.  Patrick and Art come to understand the others, but much later and at different times.  When the last light switch is toggled on, there’s an explosion.

Guadagnino’s previous three films (I Am Love, A Bigger Splash, Call Me by My Name) form what we calls his Desire Trilogy, and all three abound in sensual desire.  Challengers could have been titled Desire, in the sense that competitive success pivots on who has the most desire, who wants it more than their peers, who has enough drive to fuel the grueling training and who has the killer instinct in competition.

Guadagnino is known for sensual films, set in beautiful places (a palazzo-like house in Milan, a glorious Mediterranean island and the Northern Italian countryside) and with abundant, tantalizing gourmet food. In contrast, Challengers takes place in hotel and motel rooms, tennis courts and locker rooms and the moment closest to food porn involves churros in a Stanford campus cafe. Guadagnino focuses the sensuality on the tennis scenes and the closeups of his actors as they hunger for victory or for sex.

There’s a constant undercurrent of lust, but calling Challengers primarily a love triangle would be too pat. It’s just such a rich depiction of the strengths and weaknesses of the characters, their respective vulnerability to manipulation and their relative levels of ambition.

Zendaya in CHALLENGERS. Courtesy of MGM.

One key to the story in Challengers is when the characters figure each other out. One takes the measure of the other two immediately; each of the other two finally get the others, but at different times.

Challengers is superbly acted. Zendaya’s performance is a revelation, both in the way she hides Tashi’s thoughts from the guys and in her remarkable physicality. Guadagnino uses closeups and quick cutting to make Faist and O-Connor look like they’re playing high level tennis. Zendaya, ripping the ball in long shots, looks like she is ready for the U.S. Open.

Josh O’Connor – the feckless marriage-age Prince Charles in The Crown and the surly protagonist of La Chimera  (by another Italian filmmaker, Alice Rohrwacher) – finally gets to play a character with joie de vivre, and he’s excellent.

Bill Faist in CHALLENGERS. Courtesy of MGM.

I hadn’t seen Bill Faist (West Side Story) before, and his performance in Challengers is often the most interesting. Affable, malleable and conflict-avoidant, the young Art knows when unrequited love is causing his unhappiness. But then, he’s also unhappy when he seems to have it all, and he doesn’t understand why.

Challengers is a wonderful two-hours-and-eleven minutes movie, but I think that there’s an even better one-hour-and-fifty-five minute movie inside; Guadagnino invests too much time in the final confrontation, drawing it out with plenty of slow-motion and house music. Still, this is one of the best films of 2024.

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: the underdogs soar

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Photo caption: Callum Turner (center front) in THE BOYS IN THE BOAT. Courtesy of MGM.

The Boys in the Boat is the entertaining true story of the ultimate sports underdog – the University of Washington’s junior varsity rowing team, which won gold medals at the 1936 Olympics hosted by Hitler in Munich (the Jesse Owens Olympics). Again, this was UDub’s JUNIOR varsity boat.

The Boys in the Boat follows a familiar arc for sports movies – the heroes must win the Big Race (actually, three Big Races here). We’ve all seen this before, but director George Clooney gets the credit for keeping The Boys in the Boat from becoming unbearably hackneyed or corny. Best known as a movie star, Clooney has proven himself an able director: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night and Good Luck, The Ides of March, The Monuments Men.

In telling the story, Clooney emphasizes the Depression setting and how impoverished the kids on the team are, especially the main kid, played by Callum Turner. Joel Edgerton plays the taciturn coach, who must gamble his job on an unconventional decision. Few of us have a deep understanding of the sport of team rowing, so Clooney takes us on a rowing procedural.

Joel Edgerton (second from right) in THE BOYS IN THE BOAT. Courtesy of MGM.

I love Edgerton in everything, and he’s starred in Master Gardener, Loving and Zero Dark Thirty. I especially recommend watching him in The Gift, which he also wrote an directed. Edgerton is very, very good here.

Callum Turner is adequate, but Luke Slattery and Jack Mulhern are especially vivid as his two of his teammates.

This story is still celebrated in Seattle, where you can still visit the boathouse and see the team’s memorabilia. One race is staged in the Montlake Cut between Lake Washington and Puget Sound. The coolest race scene has an observation train, with bleachers on the rail cars, keeping pace with the boats racing down the Hudson River.

The Boys in the Boat ain’t the most original film, but it’s enjoyable to watch.

REGGIE: it’s not just about Reggie

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Photo caption: Reggie Jackson in REGGIE. Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

After watching the documentary Reggie, I was surprised that I found spending 104 minutes with Reggie Jackson so rewarding. In the 1970s, Jackson seemed to me such an egotist, so consumed by his own stardom. Of course, the media were always asking him about himself. Here, where Jackson has the platform, he talks about himself in the context of larger issues of racial justice, economic justice, righting past wrongs and creating a more equitable future – for everybody, not just for Reggie.

The film could have been titled The Life and Times of Reggie Jackson. America’s struggle with race is in the forefront of Reggie, understandably because of the times. In addition, Reggie sees many of the pivotal events in his life as impacted by race – and he makes a convincing case.

Reggie contains lots of tidbits, many not well known:

  • Reggie’s own experiences with racial prejudice as a child and young man
  • Reggie’s shielding from the dangers of Alabama Jim Crow by minor league teammates Joe Rudi, Rollie Fingers and Dave Duncan
  • His early mentorship by Joe DiMaggio
  • His chafing at Charley Findley – and Findley giving him a $2500 pay cut for “too many strikeouts” in a season when Reggie led the league in homers
  • Reggie’s prickly relationship with Thurman Munson, his incendiary mismatch with Billy Martin, and an evolved friendship with George Steinbrenner
  • The origin of the “Mr. October” sobriquet.

Reggie can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime).

OUT IN THE RING: macho and flamboyant, wrestling is also queer

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Charlie Morgan in OUT IN THE RING. Courtesy of Ryan Bruce Levey.

Out in the Ring is Ryan Bruce Levey’s encyclopedic yet irresistible documentary history of LGBTQ professional wrestlers. There is no sports entertainment that is more macho than pro wrestling. Or more flamboyant. Or, as it turns out, more queer.

Out in the Ring takes us back to the 1940s, when the straight journeyman wrestler Gorgeous George became a star and transformed wrestling by affecting a gay pose as his gimmick. George was just the first to do so, and Out in the Ring traces the many straight wrestlers who have pretended to be gay.

At the same time, many of wrestling’s best performers were closeted, notably the great Pat Patterson. Out in the Ring focuses on Patterson’s career and personal life, and how he grew into an important executive in the business. Out in the Ring surveys a long list of LGBTQ wrestlers who were forced to stay in the closet, like Patterson and Susan Tex Green.

[Personal note: The Movie Gourmet is a Boomer who, as a child, was glued to the TV for KTVU’s Saturday pro wrestling broadcasts, announced by Walt Harris. (Harris also called also roller derby.) In that era, Pat Patterson was a dominant presence in Bay Area pro wrestling.]

Out in the Ring showcases the panoply of today’s Out wrestling stars, led by Charlie Morgan and Mike Parrow. The variety is astounding: gay men, lesbians, bisexual women and men, transsexual men and transsexual women, asexual and nonbinary. There are those who make their queerness a signature of their act and those that don’t. They tell us about the homophobia that they have faced and their relief and joy from coming out.

Ry Levey has brought many films to Cinequest as a publicist, especially Canadian indies. The exquisitely sourced Out in the Ring is his first feature as a director.

I screened Out in the Ring for its US premiere at Cinequest. Both unflinching and uplifting, it’s a documentary as fun to watch as pro wrestling.

JOCKEY: he finally grapples with himself

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Photo caption: Clifton Collins, Jr. in JOCKEY. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

In Jockey, Clifton Collins, Jr., plays Jackson Silva, a seasoned professional jockey – perhaps now too seasoned. His skills are undiminished but his body’s capacity to employ those skills is in serious decline. Just as he’s facing professional mortality, a promising young jockey-wannabe (Moises Arias – very good) appears and says that he is Jackson’s son.

Jackson has led a life free of introspection. He has only focused on training and riding and partying afterward. Now he must ask himself who is he, if not a jockey? Is he a man who has left relationship carnage in his wake? Is he completely alone? Can he reinvent himself?

Clifton Collins, Jr. and Moises Arias in JOCKEY. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The life of a jockey is grinding and dangerous, and Jockey is a behind-the-scenes horse-racing procedural. In one scene, Jackson and his peers (played by non-actor real-life jockeys) take turns recounting their injuries; the litany of wear-and-tear and outright catastrophes is grimly impressive.

Molly Parker and Clifton Collins Jr. in JOCKEY. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Molly Parker plays Jackson’s longtime boss and collaborator. Since her turn as the unforgettable Alma Garret in Deadwood, she has shone in episodic TV (Shattered, The Firm, House of Cards, Lost in Space). Here she credibly plays a woman utterly comfortable in a male world, respected by her peers. She is always supportive of Jackson, and she is resisting giving him a needed reality check.

Jockey is a showcase for Clifton Collins, a brilliant character actor who rarely gets lead roles. Collins is best known for his portrayal of killer Perry Smith, the subject of In Cold Blood, in 2005’s Capote with Philip Seymour Hoffman. His performance as Jackson is deeply interior, as he faces troubling realities that can no longer be deferred and which rock his very identity.

JOCKEY. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Jockey is the first feature for co-writer and director Clint Bentley. Bentley had also co-written Transpecos, directed by Jockey co-writer Greg Kwedar; Transpecos also starred Collins. In Jockey, Bentley demonstrates effective use of non-actors, a remarkable caoacity for delivering verisimilitude, and a beautiful eye for framing exterior shots.

This is an excellent film with a great performance. Jockey can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

I, TONYA: we can laugh, but must not judge

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Margot Robbie in I, TONYA

The riotously funny docucomedy I, Tonya relives the tawdry story of figure skating star Tonya Harding, brought to disgrace when her supporters injured her competitor Nancy Kerrigan.  Margot Robbie (significantly glammed down) is exceptional as Tonya Harding.

Harding, of course, came from scruffy working class roots in Portland.  With disadvantages of class and poor education,  Tonya was unequipped to navigate a world dominated by middle and upper classes.  In I, Tonya, she refers to herself as a redneck and acts like trailer trash – really unapologetic trailer trash.

But I, Tonya adds another level to Tonya’s story.   In I, Tonya, Tonya’s mother LaVona (Allison Janney) is more than a driven, severe stage mother – she’s unrelentingly abusive, both emotionally and physically.  To make matters worse, Tonya escapes LaVona’s perpetual nastiness by running away into the arms of Jeff (Sebastian Stan) and his chronic domestic violence.  At one point, Tonya reflects, “All I knew was violence“.

The beauty and effectiveness of Steven Rogers’ screenplay is that we can laugh at misadventures of these folks while deeply sympathizing with Tonya – scarred and shaped by abusive experiences.  The characters all break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience – very effective here.  Rogers and director Craig Gillespie maintain a perfect balance between the laughs and the abuse – sometimes at the same time.  This is the Aussie Gillespie’s best work.

Alison Janney in I, TONYA

LaVona’s spiteful bile is so extreme that it’s darkly funny.  Allison Janney, who is superb as this poisonous woman,  is probably America’s least vain actor. And nobody has ever had a better sense of comic timing.  She made me laugh out loud the first time I saw her, in 1998’s Primary Colors, and she keeps the audience guffawing in I, Tonya.

Jeff’s friend Shawn (a brilliant Paul Walter Hauser), who “masterminds” the attack on Kerrigan,  is so catastrophically stupid that he is unable to comprehend the profundity of his own stupidity.  In the closing credits, we get to glimpse the real LaVona and the real Shawn.

Julianne Nicholson is excellent as Tonya’s hyper-polite coach.  In a very brief role, Ricky Russert brilliantly brings out the glorious combination of panic and idiocy of “hit” man Shane Stant.

Once Tonya has been hounded by the media and suffered complete public humiliation, she faces the camera and says to the audience, “you have been my abusers“.  It’s not preachy or overdone, and this brief moment is crisp and unforgettable.  We have been laughing at her, but who are we to judge this survivor of family violence?

I, Tonya is captivating combination of sympathy and hilarity – and one of the year;s best films.

https://youtu.be/iZbTLdDHRvs

Cinequest: THE GREAT SASUKE

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THE GREAT SASUKE
THE GREAT SASUKE

Mikiko Sasaki’s ever surprising The Great Sasuke starts out with the most essential element of a documentary – a compelling subject.  Here it’s a Japanese pro wrestler who achieved stardom after bringing a Lucha Libre mask (and a wife) from his training days in Mexico.  Between 1992 and 2006, The Great Sasuke won championships and filled large Tokyo arenas.  He especially thrilled audiences with his aerial moves (that’s when he climbs up on the turnbuckles and jumps off on to the hapless opponent). But all that combat has taken a toll on his body, and now he is headquartered in his obscure hometown 300 miles north of Tokyo, performing in front of a couple hundred on folding chairs or floor mats.  So far we have the familiar story of an athlete aging out of fame and success, but two aspects of The Great Sasuke make this story much more interesting.

First, this guy NEVER takes off his mask.  We see him striding down the sidewalk in a business suit, briefcase in hand – fully masked.  And we see him eating breakfast with his kids, vacuuming the floor, driving, brushing his teeth – all in his mask.  He’s even developed a technique for changing between his everyday mask and his performance mask – all in a way that doesn’t let anyone glimpse his face.  (At the Cinequest screening, director Sasaki said that The Great Sasuke’s wife insisted that she would not be married to a guy who didn’t take the mask off in the bedroom, and The Great Sasuke’s kids have seen his face, too.)

Second, he’s a quirky guy who plunges himself in to offbeat (and doomed) schemes to set up business enterprises and even run for political office.  He is completely sincere and just couldn’t work any harder, but he won’t listen to anyone tell him that his plans are completely half-baked.  He may be a force of nature, but it’s pretty hard to sway voters when you’re campaigning on street corners in a wrestling mask.  It all adds up to a good movie experience.

 

Cinequest: SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM

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SWEDEN'S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM
SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM

The winning Nerd Olympics documentary Sweden’s Coolest National Team brings us into a world that I didn’t know existed – international competition in memory sport. That subject is the first factor that elevates Sweden’s Coolest National Team above the familiar arc of the sports movie. We see people who can remember the exact order of a shuffled deck of cards, seemingly endless strings of binary numbers, even entire dictionaries. (The current world record for memorizing the order of a shuffled deck of cards is 21.19 seconds.) It is a jaw-dropping exhibition.

We meet the sport’s founder and several world champs, and we do end up at the World Memory Championship.  Along the way, we see the universal aspects of competition – the pressure to perform, the rookie’s overconfidence, comeuppance for both the brash rookie and the complacent old champ. One competitor’s sister phones their parents to report “he got crushed”.

But what makes Sweden’s Coolest National Team so engaging is that its subjects are so fascinating.  As one might expect, the competitors don’t seem particularly athletic and many are downright geeky. Several of the past world and Swedish champions are remarkably devoted to the sport and amazingly generous in helping younger memory sportsmen. Then there is the smug yuppie who dresses like he is giving a TED Talk and seeks to mold the sport into something that he can monetize.

And it has plenty of slyly funny moments – just as our yuppie complains about a former champ making the sport look like it’s just for oddballs, the old geek wanders through a competition with an alarming case of Plumber’s Butt.

The film’s epilogue notes that one of the subjects won the World Championship in 2013. He repeated his win in 2014.

Sweden’s Coolest National Team, which flies past the audience in a just-right 58 minutes, will have its North American premiere at Cinequest on February 25 and play again on February 27 and March 1, all at Camera 12.