My mom loved
Bend It Like Beckham, but I don't think I'd seen it probably since my days of going back to live with my mom during my college summers. It was pretty new at the time. I watched it again recently, and it was a candy-coated treat; I forgot what a wholesome, uplifting movie it is. It's very early
Keira Knightley (who's now in everything) and Parminder Nagra (who I know from diligently watching all 15 seasons of
ER during the Pandemic). It's a movie about soccer, culture clashes, women's empowerment, and soccer. A total win.
National Velvet sports a fantastic cast of folks:
Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet,
Mickey Rooney as her horse trainer Mi,
Angela Lansbury as her sister Edwina, and
Donald Crisp as her father. Velvet wins a spirited horse in a town lottery and decides, with the help of Mi, to ride it in the Grand National, a prestigious horse race. Not unlike
Beckham, it's a good movie about good people. Perhaps my favorite bit in the whole movie comes right at the end when her dad looks at the family dog and asks, "How can there be so many currents in such a little puddle?" It's such a simple question that gets at the bigger world. Have any of you read the book? I haven't, but curious to know your thoughts if you have.
The Battered Bastards of Baseball is a fantastic film! It's a documentary about the Portland Mavericks, a semi-professional baseball team. They were put together by
Bing Russell, father of
Kurt Russell, and played from 1973 to 1977. You can find a history of the team -- which still exists in a slightly different form --
here. I was fascinated to learn that Kurt, the actor, even played for the team for a short time in 1973. What an interesting upbringing he must have had! It's a great story about someone bucking the system and crushing it, and what a fascinating piece of fun baseball history it is!
If you want a movie with a killer soundtrack, try
Air. It's great, and I'm not just saying that because it stars my boyfriend,
Matt Damon. He's back with his good buddy
Ben Affleck, and they've thrown
Jason Bateman into the mix for good measure; how can you go wrong? It's the story of that plucky upstart, Nike, just as they get their big break, against all odds, by signing Michael Jordan to an endorsement deal.
Viola Davis plays Michael Jordan's mom, and she's also fabulous. But, back to where we started: you can find the track listings for the movie soundtrack
here; it's a collection of straight winners.
Friday Night Lights is a feel-good football movie in the tradition of
Rudy and
Remember the Titans. It's a pretty basic plot: football star is out for the season, and the town will either come together or tear itself apart in its effort to win the big game. One thing I think this movie does really well is hint that there are
loads of relationships that impact the characters, but they don't really
get fleshed out. It leaves just the right amount to the viewer to
interpret. I don't give a hoot about football generally, but I cared enough about the characters to be interested in the outcome of the big game. I haven't watched the TV series; thoughts on that?
When we were on our flight home from Ireland, I watched
The Wall: Climb for Gold on the airplane. The film profiles four climbers in the run-up to the 2020 (which became the 2021) Olympics in Tokyo. Personally, I loved seeing so many powerful female climbers, and the movie made me crave going back to climbing again. I'm a sucker for the Olympics (even if I don't care about the sport), and also for anything climbing-related, so this movie was catnip for me. It may not be for everyone, but it was right in my wheelhouse.
Another home-from-Ireland airplane move was
Vettel: More Than a Champion, a documentary about the recently-retired F1 driver
Sebastian Vettel. I hate to say anything negative about this film because I love Seb and think he's a great role model both as an athlete and a human. But I think the movie could have done more to give some color and detail to his racing career. It was good, but not great. Also, weirdly, I couldn't find any cover image from this movie, so here's a random screen grab of a Seb photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment