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My greatest shock of SXSW was in all probability Julio Quintana’s “The Long Game,” a film that appears on paper like one other cookie-cutter inspirational sports activities drama however transcends its clichés by being true to its characters and creative in its strategy. I’m unhappy to say that I noticed numerous movies at SXSW that appeared like TV, nevertheless it’s clear from the start that Quintana realized quite a bit from his mentor Terrence Malick—Quintana labored on “The Tree of Life” and “To the Wonder.” There’s an magnificence to the filmmaking right here, a grace to the way in which Quintana approaches his characters and the pure world, that elevates the storytelling. Yes, a number of the writing dips into cliché, and it’s not an unpredictable movie, however there’s one thing to seeing an old style story that’s this well-told.
Jay Hernandez stars as JB Pena, a WWII vet in ‘50s Del Rio, Texas, who turns into the superintendent and needs to hitch the native nation membership. Of course, that’s not allowed on this period, and “The Long Game” does too overtly use caricatures of highly effective, Southern white males being overtly racist. Of course, that existed, however the monsters who run the golf neighborhood in 1956 Texas are a bit two-dimensional right here.
The movie will get its power from the youngsters that Pena meets who caddy on the membership and have fashioned their very own golf group. Pena realizes that this crew, led by the wonderful Julian Works as Joe Trevino, has what it takes to compete with anybody, and so will get them in a contest on the membership. The members of the crew exterior of Works are a bit undefined, however “The Long Game” succeeds partly because of the sports activities film sand traps it avoids. When Dennis Quaid is launched because the alcoholic coach who can carry the boys to glory, it’s really easy to see the white savior film this might have turn out to be, however Quintana and Quaid keep away from it. I liked how alcoholism doesn’t turn out to be the central story as it will in a lesser movie, and the film doesn’t turn out to be a story of Hispanic children saving a white man or vice versa. He’s simply part of this story, no larger than the function Joe’s girlfriend (a superb Paulina Chavez) performs on this saga. Quintana understands one of the best strategy to this story is a tapestry, capturing the numerous influences on a younger life—a brand new coach, a brand new girlfriend, his fellow golfers, and so on.—and the way they will form a future. After all, the lengthy sport of human existence takes teamwork.
