Angus Benfield – Through the Shattered Lens

In 2025’s Stan The Man, Angus Benfield stars as Stan Jacobs, a football coach looking for redemption.

When we first meet Stan, he’s one of the most popular men in Texas. He’s a pro football coach, one who has been leading his team to victory after victory. One commentator states that Stan has put Texas “on the map.” He’s known as “Stan the Men” and everyone wants his autograph. What the public doesn’t know is that Stan is an alcoholic. After coaching while drunk (and even worse, losing the game), Stan is suspended from coaching. Because he can’t control his drinking, he soon finds himself in prison and then living on the streets. Eventually, Stan finds God, stop drinking, and gets the opportunity to coach a high school team. By an amazing coincidence, his star player just happens to have an alcoholic father who could use some counseling from someone who has been there….

It’s a nice storty and a well-intentioned film. That said, I am begging the directors of these low-budget, faith-based films to study how to tell a story and how to maintain narrative momentum. Stan The Man takes over a 100 minutes to tell an 80-minute story. Indeed, Stan isn’t even offered the high school coaching job until about 40 minutes into the movie. Before that, we have to sit through a lot of scenes that basically tell us the exact same thing over and over again: Stan is an alcoholic. Most of what happened during the first half of this film could have easily been compressed to just a handful of minutes. As it is, the movie just plays out too slowly.

And that’s a shame because there were some things that I definitely appreciated about this film. The film was set and shot in Texas and the scenery was lovely. Angus Benfield gave a good performance as Stan and most of the members of the supporting cast were believable in their roles. The film’s intentions were definitely good and I appreciated the emphasis that was put on forgiveness and second chances. Even at his worst and his most obnoxious, Stan is still clearly someone who, deep down, wants to change and fix his life. The film did not sugarcoat just how difficult it can be to grow up in the shadow of alcoholism. At the end of the film, I have to admit that I genuinely smiled when one of the characters introduced himself by sayin that he was a week sober. It was a genuinely sweet moment and, when he said those words, I remembered when my Dad was a week sober. And then a month sober. And then a year sober. And then several years sober. In that moment, the film definitely got to me.

If only the film wasn’t so slow. I think that directors sometimes think that good intentions are enough. But I would ask anyone who is making a movie to watch and truly study other films before they ever say, “Action!” for the first time. Stan The Man reaches a decent conclusion but it takes forever for it to really get started.

The 2018 Australian film, Trust, tells the story of Daniel Rainwater (Keith Austring).

Daniel is an illustrator whose seemingly perfect life falls apart in just one day. He loses his job and doesn’t even receive a severance package. He discover that his wife (Lisa Carey) has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. With no money coming in, he loses his home. His children move in with his wife. At one point, he develops a terrible rash on his face. When he does get a new place to live, it’s a tiny apartment that is so cluttered and dusty that it looks like it should be on an episode of Hoarders. When he gets a new car, he is involved in a terrible car crash and ends up breaking his leg in five different places. When he finally gets the cast off, the first thing he does is fall flat on his face. When he does get another job, he finds himself working in a warehouse….

Well, you get the idea.

At one point, one of Daniel’s friends informs him, “I think you’re going through a Job-like test.”

“Awesome,” Daniel replies.

Yes, Trust is yet another film based on the Book of Job but, as opposed to so many similar films, Trust actually has a sense of humor about itself. Instead of resorting to melodrama, as so many other Job-inspired films do, Trust often finds the humor in Daniel’s various situations. I mean, the guy just cannot catch a break. Indeed, Daniel’s problems can often just as easily be ascribed to him having terrible luck as they could to an wager between God and Lucifer. Daniel is the type whose laptop dies right before he needs to use it. He’s the type who always locks his keys in his car. He’s the type who gets drenched by a sudden rainstorm. Daniel has a lot to deal with and he frequently gets discouraged but he never gives up and, as played by Keith Austring, it’s hard not to like him.

Yes, it’s based on the Book of Job and Job is a Rorschach test for how one feels about the idea of being tested. Many see the book as a celebration of faith in the face of adversity. Others see it and wonder why poor Job and his family (the majority of whom ended up dying) had to be put through so much for just a wager. Trust avoids a lot of the issues inherent in the Job narrative by making Daniel’s problem more down-to-earth. Daniel may have to move out of the house and he may not get to see his children as much as he likes but at least they aren’t killed by a plague. Though Daniel eventually finds peace with all of his problems and realizes that they’ve helped to make him a stronger man and a better father, the film itself never feel preachy. Trust is a well-directed and well-acted film, one that understands the importance of humor and humanity.