Diamond King (2024) Hits VOD Friday

 

Picasso doesn't have a World Series ring. Matisse doesn't have a World Series ring - Dick Perez who has a World Series ring

Director Marq Evans returns with a look at artist Dick Perez. Perez is the official artist for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he is tasked with doing the portraits of every person inducted into the Hall. However, he's also painted a well-loved series of baseball cards (the title of the film comes from it), done extensive work for the Philadelphia Phillies (hence his having a World Series ring) and he's made the history of baseball come alive for generations through his work. 

Buckle in boys and girls this is a far-reaching film. 

Nominally this is the story of Perez and his life and art, but at the same time the film is also several other things. It’s a look at the game of baseball over the years, it’s a look at memorabilia collecting (Perez’s art is on sport cards) and collectors, it’s a look at the immigrant experience (Perez came to America as a child and he became a fan of the game because it was a way of connecting to the kids around him) and it's a look at the history of art and how it influences how we see the world. And since this is a Marq Evans film there is even more going on. 

Evans is one of the great filmmakers who make seemingly simple films that have unexpected facets to them. Evans seems to hate his films being about one thing and pulls as much into them as he can fit. He is never content to just tell you about a subject but about all the things that touch that subject, so you get a better understanding of it.

That said the most important facet of any Marq Evans film is always the film's subject, in this case it's Dick Perez. Perez is a cool guy. He is very aware of everything connected to his work.  He is so aware that he is a brutally honest critic of his own work. He hates one piece he did for the Philadelphia Phillies that he says is the worst thing he has done and that he wants cremated with him.  He is a man who loves baseball, and it is so much fun listening to him talk about the game from an artist's perspective. It's an even bigger blast since he not only discusses his own art and the game but the history of painting which results in some unexpected revelations of their intersections as he reveals the inspiration of his work in the work of the great masters. You will not look at any art in the same way again.

The film is helped by the on-screen narration by John Ortiz, who acts as a welcoming figure like the guy selling programs as you enter a stadium.  Where most documentaries have moved away from on screen narrators, in favor of a voice of god, Evans leans into the on-screen presence as a way of making the film not a lecture but a story told between good friends on a sunny afternoon in a ballpark. Two minutes into the film Ortiz is our best buddy and we'll go anywhere with him. We want to sit and drink beers and have hot dogs with him. As a result of Ortiz's boisterous love of the game and the joy he feels in discussing it has become infectious and we fall deeper in love with Perez's art and the game of baseball. Ortiz needs to do more narration he is that good.

While the film is completely and utterly a film that stands on its own pedestal, the best way that I can explain how good the film is to say, lazily, that this great little film feels as though it’s a kind of adjacent to Ken Burns Baseball series since we get so much history mixed into Perez’s tale that it speaks volumes about not just art and baseball but the people who enjoy both. 

This film is so good that I suspect that this will end up on endless repeat on the MLB channel for years to come.

What an absolute delight. 

Highly recommended for any baseball or art fan.

The film World Premieres January 5,6,7 at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Tickets and information on the screenings can be found here. The film will be playing additional festival dates before being released sometime this year.

An interview with director Marq Evans will appear this weekend.

The Diamond King (2025) Palm Springs FIlm Festival 2025

 

Picasso doesn't have a World Series ring. Matisse doesn't have a World Series ring - Dick Perez who has a World Series ring

Director Marq Evans returns with a look at artist Dick Perez. Perez is the official artist for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he is tasked with doing the portraits of every person inducted into the Hall. However, he's also painted a well-loved series of baseball cards (the title of the film comes from it), done extensive work for the Philadelphia Phillies (hence his having a World Series ring) and he's made the history of baseball come alive for generations through his work. 

Buckle in boys and girls this is a far-reaching film. 

Nominally this is the story of Perez and his life and art, but at the same time the film is also several other things. It’s a look at the game of baseball over the years, it’s a look at memorabilia collecting (Perez’s art is on sport cards) and collectors, it’s a look at the immigrant experience (Perez came to America as a child and he became a fan of the game because it was a way of connecting to the kids around him) and it's a look at the history of art and how it influences how we see the world. And since this is a Marq Evans film there is even more going on. 

Evans is one of the great filmmakers who make seemingly simple films that have unexpected facets to them. Evans seems to hate his films being about one thing and pulls as much into them as he can fit. He is never content to just tell you about a subject but about all the things that touch that subject, so you get a better understanding of it.

That said the most important facet of any Marq Evans film is always the film's subject, in this case it's Dick Perez. Perez is a cool guy. He is very aware of everything connected to his work.  He is so aware that he is a brutally honest critic of his own work. He hates one piece he did for the Philadelphia Phillies that he says is the worst thing he has done and that he wants cremated with him.  He is a man who loves baseball, and it is so much fun listening to him talk about the game from an artist's perspective. It's an even bigger blast since he not only discusses his own art and the game but the history of painting which results in some unexpected revelations of their intersections as he reveals the inspiration of his work in the work of the great masters. You will not look at any art in the same way again.

The film is helped by the on-screen narration by John Ortiz, who acts as a welcoming figure like the guy selling programs as you enter a stadium.  Where most documentaries have moved away from on screen narrators, in favor of a voice of god, Evans leans into the on-screen presence as a way of making the film not a lecture but a story told between good friends on a sunny afternoon in a ballpark. Two minutes into the film Ortiz is our best buddy and we'll go anywhere with him. We want to sit and drink beers and have hot dogs with him. As a result of Ortiz's boisterous love of the game and the joy he feels in discussing it has become infectious and we fall deeper in love with Perez's art and the game of baseball. Ortiz needs to do more narration he is that good.

While the film is completely and utterly a film that stands on its own pedestal, the best way that I can explain how good the film is to say, lazily, that this great little film feels as though it’s a kind of adjacent to Ken Burns Baseball series since we get so much history mixed into Perez’s tale that it speaks volumes about not just art and baseball but the people who enjoy both. 

This film is so good that I suspect that this will end up on endless repeat on the MLB channel for years to come.

What an absolute delight. 

Highly recommended for any baseball or art fan.

The film World Premieres January 5,6,7 at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Tickets and information on the screenings can be found here. The film will be playing additional festival dates before being released sometime this year.

An interview with director Marq Evans will appear this weekend.

The League (2023) Tribeca 2023

This is a look at the Negro Leagues of Baseball  out of which came many of the greatest players of all time.

This is a glorious celebration of the men who played the game better than anyone ever, it's also a record of a piece of history that most people have never heard. Sure every baseball fan has heard of the Negro League but most don't really know the details, nor have they seen any of the film that was shot of the games.

All hail director Sam Pollard who has made a film that is going to open the eyes of many people who only know the subject as a few cold sentences. This is a film that brings it all to life.  This is a film that explains simply and easily why the men who played in here were the best that ever was.

I don't say that lightly. While I am a white guy, I grew up hearing stories of the Negro Leagues. While I know my dad never saw a Negro League game he was a fan, the result of the stories his friends would tell him of the games that they went to. As the greats like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Satchell Page moved over to MLB he was regaled with tales of what these giants did  before.

Luckily Pollard tells us and amazingly occasionally shows us.  What a joy it is to see the found footage on the big screen where it can truly impress us.

I loved this film.

Talking to someone connected to the film's PR between screenings I mentioned how much I loved the film and I inquired if there was any plans to expand the film into a mini-series. They looked at me quizzically until I explained how much more there was to tell. There were so many great players and so many great stories that a film of 103 minutes can't contain them all.  I wanted to see more.

What a great film. It's so good that I'm planning on seeing it on the big screen again when it its theaters in July. 

SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES (2023) Tribeca 2023

This is the story of Mike Veeck, son of Baseball owner Bill Veeck, whose Disco Demolition  forced his father to have to sell the White Sox. After bumming around for year Mike found redemption in the independent leagues of baseball where his crazy stunts brought in fans and his willingness to give second chances brought some greats back to the game.

Despite having some annoying recreations of Mike's younger life, this is one the great films of 2023. A delightful film about some good people who just want to have a good time.  It's a magical tale that put a big smile on my face and had me talking to everyone afterward about how this was the great unseen film of Tribeca. Why no one was talking about it and why no one seemed to have any interest in it was lost to us. 

This is pure magic. Its a film you put on and just fall into. Its good times with great people and even when it gets emotional, it earns earns every tear.

Highly recommended

It Ain't Over (2022) opens Friday 5/12

When Major League Baseball had the four greatest living baseball players show up at the  All Star Game, they made a major mistake in forgetting Yogi Berra. While he is best known for his Yogi-isms, most people forget how good a player he really was. How good was he? He has 13 World Series rings, 10 as a player, which is more than the  the four players the shuttled out combined. When Berra's granddaughter saw the "mistake" she took steps to correct it.

Containing a who's who of admirers, both in baseball and out, IT' AIN'T OVER is a moving film that fixes the record regarding Yogi Berra. One of the greatest that ever played, this film makes it clear that he was in many ways was more amazing than Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. The trouble is he was a lovable guy who said things that sounded goofy (When you see a fork in the road take it).  He let the media create a character for him and he went with it, which endeared him to generations while hiding his real achievements.

Everything seems to be here, from his friendship with Jackie Robinson, to his support of LGBT rights to a long laundry list of amazing things. Berra never stopped doing and doing the right thing.

I really liked this film a great deal. This is a super film that is full of laughs and tears and more nostalgia than you can shake a stick at.

That said the film has one big problem and that is the film relies a bit too much on Berra's granddaughter. While what she tells us is golden, having so much come from her and not other baseball players kind of lessens things. Why is she telling us this and not some of the other people who are interviewed? While I'm a long time Berra fan and understand how good he was, I know people coming in blind may not be convinced.

Slight reservation aside, this film is an absolute must, more so if you love baseball.

Facing Nolan (2022) Opens tomorrow

With FACING NOLAN hitting theaters tomorrow here is a repost of the short piece I did for SXSW

FACING NOLAN is a loving portrait of baseball legend Nolan Ryan and his wife, Ruth. It’s a portrait of one of the greatest players ever and the man who is supposed to have the fastest fast ball ever thrown. Its all here from his little league days to his adventure in the present day.  The film is a treasure for anyone who grew up watching the man in action or ever heard the tales of his achievements. It also makes clear to the loonies who of late have been saying that he wasn’t that great, that yea he really was. Recommended. 

It Ain't Over (2022) Tribeca 2022

 When Major League Baseball had the four greatest living baseball players show up at the  All Star Game, they made a major mistake in forgetting Yogi Berra. While he is best known for his Yogi-isms, most people forget how good a player he really was. How good was he? He has 13 World Series rings, 10 as a player, which is more than the  the four players the shuttled out combined. When Berra's granddaughter saw the "mistake" she took steps to correct it.

Containing a who's who of admirers, both in baseball and out, IT' AIN'T OVER is a moving film that fixes the record regarding Yogi Berra. One of the greatest that ever played, this film makes it clear that he was in many ways was more amazing than Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. The trouble is he was a lovable guy who said things that sounded goofy (When you see a fork in the road take it).  He let the media create a character for him and he went with it, which endeared him to generations while hiding his real achievements.

Everything seems to be here, from his friendship with Jackie Robinson, to his support of LGBT rights to a long laundry list of amazing things. Berra never stopped doing and doing the right thing.

I really liked this film a great deal. This is a super film that is full of laughs and tears and more nostalgia than you can shake a stick at.

That said the film has one big problem and that is the film relies a bit too much on Berra's granddaughter. While what she tells us is golden, having so much come from her and not other baseball players kind of lessens things. Why is she telling us this and not some of the other people who are interviewed? While I'm a long time Berra fan and understand how good he was, I know people coming in blind may not be convinced.

Slight reservation aside, this film is an absolute must, more so if you love baseball.

Last Out (2020) Tribeca 2021

With THE LAST OUT playing Tribeca this year here is a repost of my DOC NYC review from last year.

A very good look at a couple of Cuban baseball players who leave Cuba and go to Costa Rica in order to establish residency so that they can have a shot at going to the US and play major league baseball. As a baseball fan this was one of my must sees at DOC NYC. I really enjoyed the film a great deal since it gave me an idea of how s many great players had to journey to come play here.

30 for 30: Long Gone Summer (2020)

ESPN look at the race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire for the 1998 single season home run title is a breezy jaunt and victory lap for McGwire.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when life was skittles and beer. This is a rah rah look at hat happened made with the wide eyed wonder of a world that wasn't truly aware of PEDs and steroids in baseball. It is largely told from the standpoint that we all had when it was going on. Sure McGwire was taking some over the counter supplements but there wasn't anything truly illegal...

On that breezy nostalgic level LONG GONE SUMMER is actually pretty good. To be certain that it is so lightweight that the two hour run time seems a bit excessive, but it's a compelling look at what happened to the world at large.

And had the film simply taken the stance that it was going to just be a recounting of what happened I would have been largely fine with it. (Though the fact that Sosa ultimately gets the short end of the stick is really freaking wrong- yea McGwire got the record but Sosa was right there until the bitter end- so he deserves better and not to be made into "the villain" in the end because he wasn't as contrite as McGwire But I digress) The trouble with the film comes in the final minutes when the film brings in the PED scandals of the next few years and then tries to be hard hitting while at the same time giving McGwire a glorious send off. It's disingenuous and mucks up the whole story. Either you deal with the fact that the PEDs had actually been there or you don't. Either you give the victory lap or you don't you don't try to do both things because it feels hollow - and the final ten minutes are as hollow as they come.

I'm sure that ESPN had to make this a glorious moment lest they not get approval to use the footage from MLB, nor probably Sosa and McGwire who probably would have walked- and I can accept that- but then they shouldn't have mentioned the PEDs and just let it go.  I went from really liking the film to kind of not, as the film not only struggled to shoehorn the PEDs in but also allowed McGwire to downplay his use saying that the use of illegal substances was actually okay because "everyone was doing it" and because "no one was testing for them". Really? Cheating is cheating what he supposedly was taking beyond the over the counter stuff was banned by MLB.

To be up front about my position, I always assume someone is trying to bend the rules, I know that is part of the game. But if you do do something wrong own it. Don't talk around it. Own it and move on. Frankly anyone suspected of taking PEDs and not caught should have simply said "yes I used them but only when they were legal. Once they were made illegal I stopped". You can't argue with that.

As I said I liked LONG GONE SUMMER until it tried to get serious. Worth a look for any baseball fan, though your reaction may vary.

July 4 at New York Asian Film Festival 2016: Sammo Hung's THE BODYGUARD, WEEDS ON FIRE, TRIVISA and MOBFATHERS- plus KILLER AND UNDERCOVER

Four films on July Fourth at the New York Asian FIlm Festival. I did want to see the fifth 10 YEARS but the lateness of the hour (it ends around 11 PM and then had a Q&A) made it a no go. Besides 13 films in 3 days was a bit much.

I do have to say that ith each day that passes I see more friends and at this point other than Mondo and Chocko I've seen everyone who is part of the usual NYAFF crew over the weekend including Hubert, Pat, Stan, Jared, Lee, Earl and Shaun. Now if I could just see Mondo all will be okay with the festival.

Sammo Hung's THE BODYGUARD is a spiritual remake of Clint Eastwood's GRAN TORINO but with broken crushing violence and tears.

Sammo plays an ex- Chinese special operative who moved back home after retiring. Crushed after losing his granddaughter (she disappeared while he was watching her) he lives alone and is suffering the effects of dementia.  When one of his neighbors gets in trouble with both the Chinese and Russian mobs, Sammo has to protect the man's daughter if for no other reason than atone for the loss of his granddaughter.

Bone crushing and bloody violence (has Sammo ever been this nasty?) mixes with heart rending emotion. What should be over the top silliness breaks your heart six ways to Sunday. Sammo's ability to construct sequences- one involving Bill Withers Ain't No Sunshine is as fine a music driven sequences as I've ever seen.

The action is some of the best Sammo has put on film, due in large part to it being so different than what we expect from the master. the audience audibly reacted with each stab, broken bone or severed limb. This is not for kids.

The film is a beautiful mix of emotion and styles as Sammo does more than the usual action film as he raises political issues and makes fart jokes which truly work within context.

One of the best films at NYAFF this year was so good and so emotional on so many levels that I wanted to just go home

But there were more movies ....

WEEDS ON FIRE is the story of the first youth baseball team in Hong Kong back in 1984 and how it changed youth sports...and won a championship its first year out.

Or its a coming of age film about two friends in the projects.

Or its a mess of a film that is full of cliches and missing details but has one or two sequences that move you to tears despite the film not being very good.

Told from the stand point of two team members the film kind of jumps through time. Characters come and go, ideas are half formed and we have no idea how the team improved. Its so bad you just kind of go with it. Its pure cliche most of the time with the friend who falls away, a knocked up girl friend and the team coming together in a sequence of pure schmaltz that made me misty.

The weakest baseball film in NYAFF history and not worth seeing.

The third film was the three part TRIVISA which told a fictional story of three of Hong Kong's biggest criminals as they try to meet up.

Set in 1997 the film follows as one crazed robber switches to smuggling because he sees there's more money in it, unaware of the bullshit involved. Meanwhile another stays with an old friend so he can case the gold store across the street. The third,  notorious kidnapper tries to get all of them together for a super plan he is working on.

Directed by three up and coming directors and overseen by Johnny To, the film is more character driven drama than bang bang shoot em up. That is not a bad thing because the film is something completely unexpected- a gripping drama about bad people.

Highly recommended.

There was a surprise Q&A with one of the director's Jevons Au who happened to be in the area. (he also did the 10 YEARS Q&A later in the day). Jevons said that the film took three years to put together as they worked on the script. To did not want a typical crime film with shoot outs and such so they kept changing things around. Since the film was not going to be a recounting of their lives the events were shifted to 1997 and the relationship altered so that the men who knew each other had never met. He also said the film came from a rumor of a grand meeting of the three men who were said to be plotting a big job. It never happened.

The Q&A was fast, brief and informative (Mr C filmed it so it may show up on line). It was an excellent treat

The final film for me was MOBFATHERS.

However before it they played the short KILLER AND UNDERCOVER. Put this excellent short from Lau Ho-Leung in the top five films of NYAFF. The film involves a cop who was stabbed with an umbrella and is dying climbing into the back of a taxi which is off duty and what results. As perfectly constructed a film as I've seen all year and one of the funniest as the loopy situation just goes six degrees of WTF.

MOBFATHERS is Herman Yau's film which will never play Mainland China. A Hong Kong F-YOU! to the ruling crazies in Beijing its full of sex and violence and political over tones that will endear it to no one with power.

Part comedy, part satire, all bloody old school gangster film this film is like a knife wound in the gut. It has a young gang leader getting out of prison after a number of years. As he tries to put his family back together he gets caught up in the political fight for the leadership of the Triads The Dragon Head. As the young guns dance the old guys manipulate the board with the result the bodies pile up and by the time the film ends everyone is dead- or near enough that you can't expect a sequel.

A damn good film on it's own terms it's damning indictment of Chinese power and how the old men manipulate the young to maintain the status quo. It could also be seen as a warning about power everywhere since the candidates running in the current US Presidential election are not the breathes of fresh air promised with both Clinton and Trump having enough ties to the behind the scenes poer brokers and money men that no matter who wins there won't be any sweeping changes- not the ay that either side hopes.

MOBFATHERS is a deeply disturbing film on any number of levels and a must see.

And with that I went home to try and get to bed early (that didn't happen it's after 1:30 am as I finish this) and take meds for the cold I've developed.

Now time for bed.

Keep reading for more reviews and festival reports over the next couple of days

KNUCKLEBALL!, FASTBALL, and the Personality of the Pitch - Tribeca 2015

Walt Whitman loved baseball, but he hated the curveball. "I shall call it everything that is damnable," he once wrote. For Whitman, the curveball was an ugly kind of deception that got in the way of hits and home runs. Maybe Whitman also viewed the curveball as an emblem of the snake oil salesman and the confidence man, those sneaks of the basest American character who deal in perfidy and grift rather than the high-minded American ideals of self-reinvention and the grind.

It makes me wonder what Walt Whitman would have thought of the fastball and the knuckleball, both of which have been the subject of entertaining and informative ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries in recent years. (Surely a documentary called Curveball is in the works.) Like the curveball, there is a kind of deception behind the fastball and the knuckelball, and the whole point is to confound batters. Rather than consider the batter vs. the pitcher in terms of the American character, Kevin Costner's narration in Fastball looks at the conflict in its most fundamental prehistoric terms: it's a guy with a stick against a guy with a rock.

Comparing Knuckleball! with Fastball is pretty fascinating since the character of the pitch has so much to do with the people who practice it and the way that stories become attached to these people. I keep saying that I don't like watching baseball, but I love the idea of baseball. These docs about fastballs and knuckleballs are about the idea of baseball, and also about baseball as a collection of stories.

Jonathan Hock's Fastball, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, chronicles the hardest throwers in the history of baseball, from oldies like Bob Feller and Walter Johnson, to Nolan Ryan, and more recent pitchers like Aroldis Chapman. The conflict isn't just a guy with a rock against a guy with a stick. There's a kind of one-upsmanship and argument about the fastball. Who threw harder? Who threw hardest? No, but who really threw hardest? It's not just the cavemen with sticks and rocks; it's like kids in the schoolyard, each one claiming that their dad could could beat up everyone else's dad. Everything is about individual achievement and pitching superlatives that push the shoulder and elbow to their absolute limit; and about measurement methods, tall tales, and, more important than the science and the math, confessions from the mound and testimonials from the plate.

Knuckleball!, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, is less about individual achievement than it is a small band of misfits. Co-directors Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg explore the pitch like a kind of last resort. Few people start as a knuckleball pitcher. Instead they wind up becoming knuckleballers because other pitches just plain didn't work for them. The film predominately focuses on Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey (the only knuckleball pitcher to win a Cy Young award), both of whom come across less like macho hard-throwers and more like zen masters of the mound. They're part of a select group of knuckleballers. When they're together, the knuckleballers are less prone to one-upsmanship and more likely to share tips that help foster the next rare knuckleballer into the brotherhood.

The fastball and the knuckleball work drastically different parts of the arm. Whereas the heat in a fastball is lost when a pitcher's elbow goes, the bobbling eccentricities of the knuckleball are lost from something as small a broken fingernail. And still, each pitch is about a kind of deception. A knuckleball, thrown with as little rotation as possible, can slip and dive unexpectedly, whereas a fastball is thought, in defiance of physics, to actually rise as it approaches home plate rather than fall. The observer, who cannot make sense of the observed object, strikes out. Somewhere in between the speed and uncertainty of the two pitches, the aim is ultimately the same: beat the guy with the stick.

Whitman would probably be upset about both the damnable fastball and damnable knuckleball as pitches per se, but perhaps he'd appreciate the characters who threw them.

Opposite Field (2014) DOC NYC 2014

Damn near perfect baseball documentary about how a Ugandan Little League team made a run at going to the US to play in the Little League World Series. Say what you will, and I will say some stuff in a moment, this film had me getting misty several times over its 75 minute run time.

Baseball was introduced to Uganda in the 1990's when missionaries brought the game to the country. The game took enough of a foothold that in 2010 an American millionaire in the country was asked to help set up a training program. A field was built and training facility was constructed. What happened then was a team was fielded and sent off to Poland to play in a qualifying round in order to go to America. What happened then is the story.

If this film was slightly edited and the pace of the first half picked up this could very well be considered one of the truly great baseball documentaries you're likely to see. The problem with the pacing results in a feeling about 40 minutes in that the story is done. Its not There is a great deal more to go-unfortunately it feels rushed (it's really  not) compared to the leisurely first half.

You have to stay with this film, you have to make it to the second half and if you do I think you're going to be richly rewarded.

A beautifully told film about the way that sports can change people for the better and bring people together, OPPOSITE FIELD is a film that will make you misty.  It won't be in big moments but in small ones, a wonderful play, the game played against Dubai, and what follows after the team goes to Poland will move you and make you feel pretty damn good. If you're coming in cold and don't know the whole story the twists and turns of the final 25 minutes are going to really surprise you.

The film plays on the 17th and 18th. For tickets and more information go here. (The screening on the 18th is at 10:45am and is the perfect excuse to play hooky)