Baseball is Back

In post-WWII America, much of the nation was enjoying a prime era. The "Greatest Generation" had returned home, triumphant over the evils of fascism and the Holocaust. But while we were celebrating our victory, evils were being perpetrated on our own soil, against our own citizens. Racism was still rampant in America, seeding itself everywhere but focused mainly in the deep south where Jim Crow was king and everything from schools to bathrooms were segregated in a laughable execution of "Separate but Equal." While all those policies were wrong, where it was most notoriously visible was Major League Baseball, at the time the country's most popular sport. Before expansion, before wild card slots, before interleague play and the World Baseball Classic, baseball culture was relatively simple and unparalleled. Still, the players, managers and umpires were all white (or at least light-skinned Latinos), with no consideration ever given to signing a black ballplayer to a Major League contract.

That changed in 1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to break baseball's sacred color barrier and forever change the sport. That's where Brian Helgeland's 42 steps up to the plate. Robinson's story hasn't been given the big screen treatment since 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story, which starred Robinson himself. Looking back on perhaps the most important change in the modern sports era, the film looks at the Hall of Famer's ascent from great Negro League player through his first tumultuous season as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning Rookie of the year in 1947. That year, Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) had to face prejudice on all side, not only from society and rival teams but often from his own teammates as well. But with a rugged determination, no shortage of talent and the backing of the Dodgers' General Manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), Robinson earns the respect of his peers to become the renowned player he is known as today.

Perhaps most surprising about this production is how it took so long to reach fruition. As I mentioned, there hasn't been a film about Robinson since 1950, a 63-year gap that seems strange when you consider Robinson's role in the Civil Rights era. Still, the final product was well worth the wait, even when you consider the fact that it comes from Helgeland, who proves himself a fine director despite his inexperience (he's a screenwriter whose only previous credits as a film director are A Knight's Tale, Payback, and The Order). He not only rebuilds classic rural America, with its dirt roads and classically-designed ballparks, but he captures the attitude of the era, the natural discrimination that can only be infused through generations of hate and ignorance. Helgeland also successfully navigates Robinson through this gamut of violent and nonviolent bigotry, painting a fairly clear picture of what the superstar had to endure in his historic first season.

Helgeland also does an excellent job with his cast, one of the strongest I've seen this year. Frequent television guest-star Chadwick Boseman gets his biggest role to date, and as Robinson his gravelly voice and barely-civil demeanor is the perfect balance for a character sick of the degradation he must endure to play the game he loves. Hopefully this will be the first step for Boseman, one of many African American actors officially making their presence known in recent years. But as much as I loved the young actor, the number one performance of 42 has to be Harrison Ford as the rule-breaking General Manager Rickey. For the first time in a LONG time, my first reaction to a Ford performance wasn't "Indy!" or "Solo!" In fact, I often had to remind myself that Ford was in fact the actor on screen most of the time, such was his astounding ability to disappear into the role. His performance, as well as Rickey's penchant for speaking in metaphors and hiding his true objectives, makes for one of the year's great characters.

And this movie is full of real-life characters, from Wendell Smith (Andre Holland), who would become the first African American member of the Baseball Writers Association of America; Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni), the Dodgers manager who declared "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a %^@&in' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded" when speaking to his players of Robinson; Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black), who famously supported Robinson even to his potentially hostile hometown fans; Ben Chapman (Alan Tudyk), the player/manager of the Philadelpia Phillies whose vocal efforts to ridicule Robinson on the field had the opposite effect of uniting much of Brooklyn around their star; and Rachel Isum Robinson (Nicole Beharie), the woman who was the tenderness behind Jackie's gruff exterior. Those great performances and more underscore the film's narrative, enhancing the story with its truly understandable characters.

Is it a perfect movie? No. Emotionally, Helgeland is still a little raw, confusing melodrama with compassion, cliche with character. There are moments throughout 42 which are so staged that they reek of ridiculousness, from the inspiration Robinson brings to a small boy to the blatant (though perhaps true) scenes of discrimination, the director occasionally stuffs his movie with unnecessary bits to try and enhance the drama. More often than not, though, he succeeds when the script calls for minimalism (a scene with Ford recollecting a white boy imitating Robinson's batting stance is exceptionally well-done). The story also has some glaring historical inaccuracies (especially involving the yearlong suspension of Durocher), though those are ultimately the exception and not the rule. The few stretches into humor feel forced, though they occasionally work despite their apparent deviation from the dramatic tale.

While it might not sit on the same pedestal as such baseball movies as Bull Durham, Field of Dreams or Moneyball, 42 surely isn't far behind. It belongs in the same discussions of The Rookie, A League of Their Own, 8 Men Out and Major League, and provides a better moviegoing experience than many of those classics. 42 harkens back to the days when baseball was America's #1 pastime, and gives a good argument for revisiting that ideal again. But even if you're no baseball fan, the movie's human drama and the legacy of Jackie Robinson are well worth your time and attention, especially since you don't want to wait another 63 years to receive this opportunity again.

School's Out for Summer

This weekend didn't afford me any time to venture to the theater and see one of the few big screen releases I haven't yet seen (Midnight in Paris and Tree of Life will come soon), so it was up to Netflix to get me through the void. This time the film in question was another pick by Southland Dan, the 2001 camp comedy Wet Hot American Summer. I remember almost nothing about this film when it was first released, only the cartoonish movie poster and bad reviews that accompanied it. The same weekend Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes opened to the tune of $65 million, Wet Hot American Summer made less than the big screen re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I actually DID see. A critical and commercial failure, the film released in only twelve theaters across the country, drawing in less than $300 thousand. Created by members of one-time MTV comedy troupe The State, it eventually became a cult hit, mostly on the strength of its satire and all-star cast. Despite it being Dan's favorite film, I was unsure how to proceed. After all, Dan and I miss more often than we hit, and often the reason one of us likes a film is the reason the other hates it. There's a reason I refer to him as "Southland Dan" in the first place, and it isn't because of a film we agree on.

Just before her career went nowhere

Taking place in 1981 at Camp Firewood, a Jewish summer camp, the story (if you can call it that) follows the final day of camp activities before the campers go home to their parents and the counselors go home to theirs. Of the vast amount of input shown, there are two distinct storylines. In the first, Camp Director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) tries to capture the eye of associate professor Henry (David Hyde Pierce) who just happens to live near the campgrounds. In the second, nice guy counselor Coop (Michael Showalter) falls for camp hottie Katie (Marguerite Moreau), who is involved with bad-boy Andy (Paul Rudd). Both lead up (along with a half dozen non-sequiter asides) to the big talent show that caps off the final day of summer, which might also be the camp's last day of existence.

It's time to play: Name That Preppie!

Let's ignore the fact that this camp is run by the kind of teens who pretty much created Jason Voorhees, and that the film contains far too many stories to be encapsulated within a single day. That's obviously intended. In fact, it's obvious how inspired the filmmaking process was by sketch comedy, as most sequential scenes had little to nothing to do with one another, and often seem to break logic probes in their desire to tell the next joke. Sure, that's hardly a knock with this type of film, but it does make the whole thing feel disjointed and unbelievable. A little of that is okay; a lot of that spoils the milk.

Camp Firewood's entry-level Jedi program

The film does feature some funny stuff in between long pauses of wait, and of course almost none of it has anything to do with the main tale. Tops is easily Christopher Meloni as a disgruntled short-order cook who talks about surviving the Vietnam war and utters unintentional self-revelations to those around of him. If you ever wanted to see Law & Order: SVU's Elliot Stabler comment on his "dick cream" or announce that he's about to hump a refrigerator, then that would be more than enough to recommend this film. Other good scenes include sex-driven Victor (Ken Marino) undergoing off-screen heroics to save a raft full of kids, Andy (Rudd) disposing of witnesses to his supervisory negligence, and a scene in which many of the counselors visit the local town "if only for an hour". It's a shame that these scenes have far too much of a break between them, as the vast majority of the film is utterly unfunny, lacking even in interest.

Yes, this is a pre-stardom Elizabeth Banks. No, she was no good then, either.

The really sad thing is there simply wasn't much interesting for this talented cast to do. Future stars like Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks mixed well with veterans like Molly Shannon and Michael Ian Black, but there simply wasn't enough for the various characters to perform. Some, like Rudd, were at least a part of the main story, while Shannon was segregated into her own private skit for much of the film to the benefit of no one. And it doesn't help that the funniest thing Janeane Garofalo ever did was associate with Ben Stiller. Am I the only one who doesn't get how she became a big star, even if it was only for a short while? I get the feeling that if Wet Hot American Summer had been produced as a regular television program instead of a motion picture, the storytelling would have worked much better, and the film's aimless approach to narration would have felt much smoother. Instead we have a movie that could have been funny being merely silly, and not always in a good way.

I don't think he likes where his hand has gone...

I suppose I should have seen this coming. Dan almost certainly should have seen this coming, but to be honest I'm not sure how he couldn't. I barely made it through Wet Hot American Summer, a poor film with some good bits that is more interesting for what came after it than the actual film product itself. There are some films that I can understand becoming cult hits; this isn't one of them. I know I'll have those who disagree with me on this, but I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone, as it's not funny enough for comedy fans and not even the parody and satire aspects are good enough to recommend. If you have to see it, fast forward to the Chris Meloni scenes and a particularly humorous road trip. That's all you really need from this film, and even that's more than most people really deserve to see.