ROW FOR LIFE (2024)

I went in not knowing anything about this film and it kicked my ass.  It was one of the best films of 2025 for me.

The story of rower Angela Madsen and her attempt to row across the Pacific is just great story telling. 

It is not what I expected and I suspect that even if it was it still would have moved me deeply. This is the story of a woman who did what she loved and the people who loved her. While it doesn't reinvent the row boat it does everything else with great skill. 

I have no notes just a desire to see it again. 

Voyage Out (2025) DOC NYC 2025

Tech entremanure Mansal Denton goes on an 8 day hunting trip with hunter  Mark Warnke and survial expert Callie Russell in order to clear out his head and get refocused.

This film plays very much like an inde narrative about people trying to some to terms with life and death. I know that may turn off some people who don't like inde narratives, but if you decide not to choose to see the film you are going to miss a beautiful and frequently medatative film that may resonate with you.

Much of the film has a great deal of power.  There is a magic in the images that seem to connect us to nature and the world around us. I was drawn into the film and moved. The framing of the images is such that it makes some the sequences where the characters speak of their lives and troubles they have overcome kind of redundant. This isn't to sell the personal stories short, rather that the film is so well made that we don't need so many words.

This is a small gem of a film.  

Caught Out Crime Corruption and Cricket (2023)

A look at the cheating scandal that rocked Indian and world Cricket circles when it was discovered that bookies were paying players and whole teams to alter the outcome of matches.

I don’t really understand Cricket. I have a vague understanding, but not enough that I can watch it and fully understand what is happening in a match. I’ve been told that if I had been raised watching the game I would have caught the disease  that would have turned it into an obsession. In India and many other parts of the world it is an obsession.

Caught Out Crime Corruption and Cricket  is the story of the betrayal of that obsession. It’s the story of how bookies gave players lots of money, not always throwing matches but to manipulate the point spreads so that things came out favorably to the bookies. How bad was it? One person is heard to testify that he could find out any match was going to turn out well in advance of it being played. It’s a heart breaker that will make you think that the sport was being run by the folks at professional wrestling.

The film follows several journalists as they stumble on the story and try to report it. At first it’s a small scale story that rattle some cages before disappearing, and then it came roaring back with a vengeance and engulfed the whole sport.

While the film could have  given us a bit more detail on some of the bad guys, I was still enthralled. This was a look into a world I knew nothing about. It was also a look into the bad things that some people will do to make a buck. I kept wondering if this sort of thing is happening at all in any of the American sports leagues, especially now that that sports betting is now an okay thing.

Recommended.

RIGHT TO FIGHT (2023) DOC NYC 2023

RIGHT TO FIGHT is one of the best films I’ve ever seen on boxing. A look at how women’s boxing came to be in the United States and the world is a great piece of filmmaking and historical recording.

Using the tales of the various women (Marian “Lady Tiger” Trimiar, Cathy “Cat” Davis, and Pat “Liberation” Pineda)  who started boxing in the early 1970’s the film charts the lives of the women as they came to find a love in the sport and then had to fight all sorts of prejudices in order to do what they love.

It may sound odd but into the 1970’s there were laws against women boxing. The New York State Athletic Commission forbade women from the squared circle and as such all of the states that copied their rules did so too. No one thought women could box, and many of the women had a struggle to find a place to train. It sounds crazy in todays world where women are draw on some boxing cards and many MMA ones, but it’s the truth and this film shows us how we got from there to here.

What I love is that the film is perfectly drops us into the late 1970s. We get a real sense of time and place. The film tells it like it is with the film using footage of all sorts of men, including many shots of Muhammad Ali saying that women not only aren’t capable of boxing but that they belong in the home cooking dinner (the Ali comments are particularly funny since his daughter was a champion boxer). We get a real sense of what they were fighting against in the ring, and we come to love them deeply because of their F-U attitude toward the authorities who wanted them stopped.

I loved this film so much. I love the story. I love how the film tells us a story that was on the verge of getting lost. I love the craft of the film which feels often like a film from the 1970’s thus enhancing the viewing experience. This is just great filmmaking across the board.

I can’t recommend this film enough.

And it should be noted that this isn’t just a film for fight fans but also for anyone who has ever been told no.

Untold: Swamp Kings (2023)

This is a four part look at the tenure of Urban Meyer as head coach of the Florida Gators during their meteoric rise to national prominence under his leadership.

I'm trying to get my head around why this four part film is part of the Untold series of films at Netflix. I  ask this because the series always looks at some sport story in such away that it raises questions about some aspect of it's subject, say game fixing, obnoxious QBs, and so on. This time out we get a more or less straight telling that white washes anything bad in a victory lap tale about the glories of Meyer at Florida. Its a three plus hour hagiography for the team during those years that could easily be cut in half.

While not bad, it doesn't really say anything. Nothing new is revealed, anything bad is down played. If the film was supposed to be critical of Meyer I don't see it except for a couple of quick lines at the very end about Meyers more recent exploits and which are way more interesting than this film.

Honestly I should have tuned out after part one because the pacing was so slack but I thought it would all turn interesting once they one the championship in part 2 but the truth is we just watch their slide into mediocrity. We didn't need four hours for this.

I suppose its great if you're a Gators fan, but if not its a long haul

Deepest Breath (2023)

THE DEEPEST BREATH profiles Alessia Zecchini, an Italian free diver and Stephen Keenan who acted as her safety diver. It is a bitter sweet film of people who loved their sport and each other.

Free diving is an incredibly dangerous sport. It involved attempting to dive down as far as possible without oxygen and then swim back up.  It’s a descent into darkness since divers go so deep light really doesn’t penetrate. It is also dangerous because the only air is what you have in your lungs. It’s deadly even for the best swimmers, who frequently blackout as they near the completion of a dive because their brains turn off to save oxygen.

The film tells the stories of Zecchini and Keenan as they learned to dive and eventually met when their paths crossed when Keenan saved Zecchini from drowning. What happens after that makes up a good chunk of the film.

This is a low key and very tense tale. It’s one that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you wait to see how it goes. While you can look to see what happens, its much better to belt in and take the ride. It’s beautifully made tale that is kind of like being inside someone else’s memory.

I was hypnotized, so on a night when I wasn’t going to watch anything and get some home stuff done I ended up watching it all in one go.

This is a great film you need to see- preferably as big as you can so you can fall into the images.

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.

It Ain't Over (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 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.

UNTOLD CRIME AND PENALTIES (2021)

Amusing documentary about the Danberry Thrashers a professional Hockey team purchased by James Galante who then turned the team over to his teen aged son, who then built the team into a lean mean fighting machine that made a run for the championship. The problem is that Galante was connected to organized crime and this resulted in some serious under the table dealings and FBI investigation.

I had a great time watching this. The story of a mobsters son making a go at running a hockey team, and doing it really well is an unexpected one. Yea things got a little out of hand but at the same time it was wildly successful.

If you like sports docs this is must.

DOC NYC 2021Capsules THE JOB OF SONGS and KEEP IT A SECRET

 

THE JOB OF SONGS
A magnificent portrait of Doolin in County Clare in Ireland through it’s music.

I don’t know what to say except that this film rocks. It’s a film that will get your toes tapping and make you want to get up and dance. It’s a celebration of the Irish music, the people who play it and the places that gave birth to it. It’s a glorious portrait of everything that is like watching a cinematic hug. I loved the film so much I wanted to book a flight and disappear into the Irish country side.

Beyond that all that’s left to say is but buy a ticket and take a ride, your soul will thank you.

KEEP IT A SECRET
This is a portrait of Irish surfing culture, which may sound like an oxymoron but the truth is it’s not. The truth is that that there is a surfing culture that sprung up when Kevin Cavey discovered a picture of surfers in Readers Digest and saw that the Irish coast had similar waves.

KEEP IT A SECRET is one of the great surprises of DOC NYC. I never expected to see a film on Irish surfing because I ever knew that they surfed there. I had a blast watching the story unfold.

What I loved about the film is that it moved like the wind. This is a finely crafted film that backs a huge amount of material in a brief running time. More films should be this well paced…

…and this good. This is a super film that will open up your eyes and make you  sit in wide eyed wonder.

Highly recommended.

Nat Hood's Quarantine Qapsule #63 Grand Prix [1966] ★★★★½

Forget Phase IV (1974). Grand Prix, the story of four Formula One drivers competing in the 1966 race season, is the best film Saul Bass ever directed. Even more impressive is the fact that he didn’t technically direct it, John Frankenheimer did. Brought on board as the visual consultant for the montages and title sequences, Bass’s work only really appears in maybe the single hour of racing footage scattered throughout the three hour runtime. So why do I say Bass directed it? Because his creative imprint is stamped so firmly into the film’s creative DNA that Frankenheimer’s presence seems to vanish, leaving only Bass’ restlessly innovate pop art sensibilities to break and rebuild the cinematic canvas.

Consider the opening titles (which come after an extended overture title card straight out of a big-budget Hollywood epic). As the the credits flash on the screen Bass shows a group of racers getting ready for the start of a race. Bass fills the screen with disjointed shots of exhaust pipes and tire ridges, wrenches tightening screws and flickering air pressure gauges. The images are then doubled, quadrupled, vigupled like an Andy Warhol portrait. As the racers hunker down into their cockpits, the editing gets faster and more frantic, cutting to hands, eyes, faces, watches as the revving of engines gets louder and louder. As the race explodes into action, the camera teleports high into the sky and follows the cars with long, sweeping pans. Suddenly the frame breaks into three vertical rectangles like comic book panels, one showing the pedals, one the hood, and one the gear shift of the same car at the same time. The fragmenting continues with the panels now going horizontal, now vertical again, now horizontal and vertical simultaneously. In these scenes we see the splintering of time and space as one imagines a racer actually experiences them at a hundred miles per hour. It’s a rowdy, roaring, ecstatic hallelujah of movement and speed.

The other two hours of the runtime that follow the actual characters are commendably solid in their own way, if not somewhat strained by the film’s needing to make time for each of the four protagonists. Yet one marvels at the convincingly human drama and the melancholy mood of the third act even as champions celebrate in the winner’s circle. But still, this is Bass’ film. His visions of speed and adrenaline reign supreme.

Unseen Films Stay At Home Festival: Film Twenty Nine: Battered Bastards of Baseballs (2014)

This is a repost of the 2014 Tribeca review.  As you will see this film blew me away. It was also the first time I seriously considered getting Netflix because I wanted to show my the film to my Dad. I don't know what else to say other than this is a great film.

I saw 35 films playing at Tribeca prior to the start of the festival- Battered Bastards of Baseball is the best one of those.

My original plan for reviewing this film was just to post a picture of my smile-something that never left my face and made my face hurt. That proved impractical so I figured maybe I'd try to explain the reaction the small group of us at the end of the press screening  which was about ten of us all looking at each other and smiling and trying to make sure that what we just saw really was what we just saw. Yes it was.

I think the best way to describe the film is to relate that one of the other writers called the film, "The sort of thing that makes sitting through all the other crap worth it" Yes it is. If movie reviewing was like mining for gold Battered Bastards is like striking the mother load.

How do I describe it? It's a feel good David and Goliath tale where it was not so much about win or lose but having fun.

The film is the story of the Portland Mavericks, a single A baseball team started by Bing Russell who was Kurt Russell's dad. Putting up his own money he started an independent team to fill the void left by the loss of the failed Triple A team The Beavers. Everybody thought Russell was mad, and they laughed at him until his rag tag team won and upset the status quo.

Its a hell of a tale and it's told by those who lived it, including Kurt Russell who played for the team.

I have no idea what to say except buy a friggin ticket and go. This movie will make you laugh and smile and cry and smile and feel so god damned good it should be illegal.

Go buy a ticket. You only have two shots at seeing it at Tribeca (the 23rd and 26th) and once word gets out odds are the tickets will go really fast. I'm telling you now so you can go buy a damn ticket.

Go see this film. Trust me you want to see this-even if you don't like sports films, even if you don't like baseball you want to see this film.

One of the best of 2014 and probably one of the best sports films ever made.

FORD VS FERRARI (2019)

Burned by Enzo Ferrari’s playing the Ford Motor company to get a higher price for his company and a deal that kept him in control, Henry Ford II decides to hit him where it hurts and beat him at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Wanting the best possible person to make it happen he brings in Carroll Shelby who won Le Mans who then brings in expert mechanic and driver Ken Miles…

An amazing piece of filmmaking Ford Vs Ferrari is a great film. It is one of the best big studio films of the year.

I honestly don’t know what to say. This is a true big screen epic. A human tale, we fall in love with Shelby, Miles and the team, and there twists in turns delight and sadden us. Our heart breaks at times and we yelp with delight when it all goes right not because we have been manipulated but because we care about the characters. Frankly the human element is so good that you could eliminate all of the racing and the film still would work. And then there is the race sequences. Some of the best race sequences I’ve ever run across grab us and hold us hostage, even when we know how it will go. They are so well done that they should get the film multiple Oscars (especially considering the races are cobbled together from multiple locations)

The film is a stunner on every level. It also gets better and better as it goes on.

And while I might quibble about one thing….I wouldn’t change one frame.

A great film, and a must see -especially if you can see it on a big screen.

The Longest Wave (2019) DOC NYC

This is a portrait of champion windsurfer/kiter surfer/ stand up paddle boarder and just plain surfer Robby Naish as he tries to find and ride the longest wave.

I must confess my desire to do an incredibly short review had me toying with the simple statement "It's just okay" but I thought that would be rude.

Rude or not the film really is just okay. While not bad, and certain to gain stature on the big screen where the wide vistas will have the audience sighing in awe, it is in fact exactly like any other of the recent docs to have come out over the last ten years- all of which follow the rise of the surfer from when they were a kid up to the present. All have some catch or another to be sure, but all are structured exactly alike which is fine but grows tiresome around the twenty minute mark of all the films.

Honestly I would have expected more from director Joe Berlinger who has made some of the most arresting docs of the past couple of decades.

Worth a look on the big screen, but if you aren't seeing it that way its best for surf fans only.