The Films of 2024: The Long Game (dir by Julio Quintana)

Posted on August 15, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Long Game is a sports film and, like most sports film, it’s a crowd-pleaser despite being predictable.

The film opens in South Texas in the 50s. World War II vet JB Pena (Jay Hernandez) has been hired as the new superintendent of the school district. Haunted by his experiences in the war, Pena now works out his emotions by hitting golf balls. Despite being sponsored by his former commanding officer, retired golf pro Frank Mitchell (Dennis Quaid), Pena is turned down for membership in the wealthy Del Rio Country Club. It’s suggested that he might fit in better at the all-Mexican country club a few towns away.

Pena discovers that five caddies at the country club have built their own golf course. (He discovers this when one of them hits a golf ball through his car window while Pena is driving.) Pena also discovers that the caddies are all students at the local high school. Pena decides to recruit the caddies into the high school’s first ever golf team. Under the guidance of both JB Pena and Frank Mitchell, the Mavericks make it to the Texas High School Golf championship and …. wouldn’t you know it! — they find themselves playing at the same country club that previously refused to allow Pena to join.

Sports films are interesting. Critics and audiences tend to make a big deal about wanting to be surprised by movies. We complain about the lack of originality that is present in most modern-day films. But we make an exception when it comes to sports films because we understand that, at their best, sports film appeal to some very basic but very important emotions. We go into sports film with the understanding that the underdogs are going to win, despite all of the obstacles that have been put in their way. We go into sports films with the understanding that the team’s best player is going to be a troubled soul who has to be talked into competing. We go into sports films knowing that the coach is going to start out pushing one method, just to realize the error of his ways. We go into sports films knowing that there’s going to be a wise mentor. (In fact, The Long Game gives us two, with both Dennis Quaid and Cheech Marin offering up advice.) Sports film tend to be very predictable but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Everybody appreciates a story about underdogs proving that they can go the distance and compete with the best. Everybody loves a story where the contender that no one took seriously comes from behind and wins. There’s a reason why the Rocky films didn’t end with the first one. After our heroes prove they’ve got the heart of a champion, we then like to see them win. These stories are totally predictable but damn if they don’t bring a tear to my eye every time.

The Long Game certainly inspired a few tears. It’s a well-made sports film, one that features heartfelt performances from Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, and all of the young actors playing the members of the Mavericks. It’s predictable but it’s also well-made and there’s an aching sincerity the whole thing that is just impossible to resist. (It also helps that the film itself is wonderful to look at, with the cinematography truly capturing the beauty of my home state.) The film is based on a true story. I imagine that a few liberties were taken, as they always are with a film like this. But still, when the film ended with grainy images of the real-life golfers, it was impossible not to be moved by their story and proud of their accomplishments.

Go Mavericks!

What Lisa Watched Last Night #174: Cocaine Godmother (dir by Guillermo Navarro)

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I watched the Lifetime gangster epic, Cocaine Godmother!

Why Was I Watching It?

You can find the answer in this review’s opening sentence. Cocaine Godmother was a gangster epic that was made for Lifetime! How insane is that!

Add to that, the life of Griselda Blanco has, as of late, become a very popular subject matter. Ever since everyone went crazy over a documentary called Cocaine Cowboys, there have been Griselda films in development. Though Cocaine Godmother may have been the first to premiere, HBO has a film coming out starring Jennifer Lopez as Griselda. There’s also another film in development, one which will star Catalina Sandino Morena as the Godmother. Apparently, 2018 is going to be the year of Griselda.

What Was It About?

The film follows Griselda Blanco (played, as an adult, by Catherine Zeta-Jones), from her youth all the way to her assassination in 2012. Griselda grows up in horrific poverty in Colombia, pimped out by her own mother and committing her first murder when a man refuses to pay her. Griselda tries to escape through a conventional marriage but, when that doesn’t work out, she marries a series of drug smugglers and soon proves herself to be just as ruthless and violent as any of her male rivals. When she’s not snorting cocaine, she’s murdering husbands, mistresses, and even children. It’s tempting to say that Griselda’s only redemption is to be found in the love she feels for her sons and for Carolina (Jenny Pellicer) but, actually, there is no redemption for anyone in this movie. From beginning to end, everyone’s terrible.

What Worked?

Somehow, the entire film worked. You don’t necessarily expect to see an effective and violent gangster film on Lifetime but somehow, Cocaine Godmother pulled it off.

Two things held this film together. One was Catherine Zeta-Jones’s performance as Griselda Blanco. Whether she was casually snorting cocaine on an airplane, explaining why children have to be killed along with their parents, or gunning down one of her husbands, Zeta-Jones was never less than compelling.

Secondly, there was Guillermo Navarro’s direction, which never allowed the pace to slacken. For a two hour and thirty minute film, Cocaine Godmother was mercifully free of slow spots. Considering that he was working under the restraints of television, Navarro did a great job bringing Girselda’s story to life.

What Did Not Work?

I was a little worried when I first heard the narrator. Narrators are usually a sign of doom in a Lifetime movie and there were a few times when the narration got a bit too obvious. That said, it was only a minor issue. For the most part, the entire film worked.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

Griselda may have been a terrible person but she had great tastes in movies. For instance, we both appreciate The Godfather films. That said, unlike Griselda, I probably wouldn’t name my son after Michael Corleone. I’d be more likely to name him after Tom Hagan because Tom made all the money but he never had to shoot anyone.

Lessons Learned

Don’t get high on your own supply.

Lisa Marie Considers A Better Life (dir. by Chris Weitz)

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recently had a chance to see A Better Life, the new film from director Chris Weitz that a lot of critics have already predicted will be a major contender for all sorts of awards at the end of the year.

A few critics have said that A Better Life is similar to the classic Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves. Look, let’s be honest. A Better Life is Bicycle Thieves except Rome has been replaced by Los Angeles and the Italian father-and-son are now an Illegal immigrant and his son (played by Demian Birchir and Jose Julian, both of whom give award-worthy performances). While Julian struggles to resist the temptation to get involved with gangs, Birchir struggles to pay the bills as a gardener. Eventually, Birchir manages to purchase a truck even though he knows that just by driving, he’s increasing the risk of being caught and deported back to Mexico. However, after only one day, the truck is stolen. Unable (because of their own status as illegal aliens) to turn to the police, Birchir and Julian embark on an increasingly dangerous quest through the shadows of Los Angeles, searching for their truck and everything that it represents (i.e., the better life of the title).

As a director, Chris Weitz takes a low-key, rather subdued approach to the material. While the cinematography emphasizes the idea of Los Angeles being both seductive and remote at the same time, Weitz focuses our attention on Birchir’s worn, world-weary face. Each line and wrinkle on that face tells us a different story of struggle and, ultimately, hope for a better life and a better future. Weitz slips up a little during the film’s final act. Some of the dialogue gets a bit too heavy-handed, despite the skill with which Bircher and Julian deliver it. It’s in these scenes that we suddenly start to see the hand of the filmmakers and suddenly, we’re no longer watching the story of a proud man sacrificing so his son can have a better life. Instead, we’re suddenly reminded that we’re watching a movie.

I have to admit that, as time has passed, I’ve become a bit less enthusiastic about A Better Life. It’s one of those films that carries a lot of power when you first see it but then, once you’ve had some time to think about it, it becomes obvious that you’re not so much reacting to what the film is as much as what you wish the film was. When I first saw A Better Life, much like a lot of critics, I thought I was seeing one of the best films of 2011. In retrospect, A Better Life is one of the better films (so far) of 2011 but hardly the best. What it is ultimately is a well-made film that struggles under the weight of its own good intentions.

Still, as I watched A Better Life, I couldn’t help but remember a crowd-pleasing scene from last year’s The Kids Are All Right. If you’ll remember, that’s the film where Julianne Moore is a professional landscaper who deals with the guilt of having an affair with Mark Ruffalo by yelling at, abusing, and eventually firing Luis, the Mexican who works for her. You may remember Moore snapping, “What are you looking at!?” and Luis replying with, “I am not looking at anything, that is just my face.” The line, of course, is delivered in a thick accent and the scene where Moore actually does fire him is largely played for laughs. We don’t see Luis again for the rest of the movie though Moore does get a throw-away line about how she wishes she hadn’t fired him (probably because she now has to do all dangerous physical labor herself).

Now. I have to admit that scene bothered me when I saw it and it has bothered me since. I doubt that the liberal audiences that flocked to see The Kids Are All Right would have found it as hilarious if Julianne Moore had unfairly fired an African-American character who spoke in exaggerated ebonics. It was as if the audience members were so exhausted from patting themselves on the back for watching a movie that pretended to be about lesbians that they were relieved to have an ethnic stereotype to laugh at.

To me, it’s because of scenes like that one that we will always need films like A Better Life.