CITY LIFE
FILM
Lame baseball season no match for Hollywood bats JIM KEOGH
I
need a good baseball movie. Quickly. Because the real thing just doesn’t isn’t doing it for me. Going into this season, I knew the Red Sox would not be special. Mookie Betts and David Price had departed for the Dodgers. Chris Sale is hurt. Manager Alex Cora languishes in exile for his role in the Astros cheating scandal. Mediocrity was to be expected. What I hadn’t anticipated was that the 2020 edition of this team would be — as Westly describes his nemesis Humperdinck in “The Princess Bride” — a “miserable vomitous mass.” The hitters approach the batter’s box with the tentativeness of someone about to receive a nasal swab. The pitching staff is a sad parade of never-will-be’s. Every time I turn on a game the Red Sox are either withering at a key juncture or they’re already down by seven runs. I’m not asking for greatness, just
a little grace. And it doesn’t have to be anything sustained. I’d settle for a few captured moments, like ... (“Moneyball”) Journeyman catcher/first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) launches a monstrous home run to earn the Oakland A’s their 20th straight victory, helping prove the metrics-driven philosophy of baseball management championed by A’s executive Billy Beane (Bratt Pitt). (“The Bad News Bears” 1976 version) It’s the championship Little League game. The Yankees hitter blasts a ball deep to center field. Timmy Lupus drifts back. Timmy’s a nice kid, but he’s got a glove made of stone. His back to the wall, he raises his left arm and the ball miraculously settles into his mitt. It’s a wondrous occasion, rivaled only by any instance when Walter Matthau cracks open a beer in the dugout. (“The Natural”) Brooklyn Knights slugger Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is mired in a horrible slump. Without his bat, the Knights are lost. Roy waves at two pitches, and steps
out of the batter’s box to gather himself. Suddenly, a mysterious woman dressed in white rises in the stands, silently urging him on. If she was any more angelic she’d be wearing wings. Inspired, Roy wallops a shot to the deepest reaches of Wrigley Field, the ball shattering a giant clock and momentarily, gloriously, stopping time. (“A League of Their Own”) Penny Marshall’s film about the sisters Dottie and Kit (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) and their memorable season with the Rockford Peaches baseball team has ended with a tribute to the fictional players who helped keep the sport alive during WWII. But there’s one last piece of film still to be shown. As the credits roll, we see footage of the real women who played for the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League, reunited for a game on the field behind the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. They are old women now and their bodies don’t cooperate they way they once could, but the skills haven’t flagged. They can bring it.
Brad Pitt, left, and Jonah Hill star in “Moneyball.” COLUMBIA PICTURES-SONY
(“Field of Dreams”) No, the moment is not Kevin Costner playing catch with his dead father or James Earl Jones pontificating about baseball’s soaring beauty. It occurs just before, when aged Burt Lancaster, as Doc “Moonlight” Graham, has realized his lifelong dream of playing Major League ball (as his ghostly
younger self) and must now depart into the mystical corn rows beyond the outfield. Just before he wanders into the stalks, Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), the greatest player of his generation, calls out. “Hey, rookie!” Doc turns to him. “You were good.” To the old man, they are the most exquisite words ever spoken.
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020
NEW ON DVD
‘Sometimes Always Never’ a fascinating play on words KATIE FORAN - MCHALE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
A
family tries to use words to fill a void in their lives in the top new DVD releases for the week of Aug. 18. “Sometimes Always Never”: Emotionally distant but idiosyncratic Alan (Bill Nighy) embarks on an awkward long car ride with his son Peter (Sam Riley). It’s clear Peter’s dreading the trip, as Alan taps away on a game on his phone. When they arrive at their accommodations, Alan makes a bet with a fellow guest (Tim McInnerny) over a game of Scrabble after playing dumb. As it turns out, the game appears to be his life, and after walloping the irate guest, the guest’s wife (Jenny Agutter) reveals they’re both on edge, only staying there that night to visit the morgue the following morning to see if a recently found body is that of their missing son. And as it turns out, Alan
and Peter are there for the same reason. Alan’s missing son, Michael, left in anger during a game of Scrabble, which explains the whole family’s obsession, and Peter resents being the son who stayed behind. Directed by Carl Hunter and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, “Sometimes Always Never” shows power in how this family’s relationships appear Bill Nighy, right, and Sam Riley star in “Sometimes Always Never.” frozen in time since MiHURRICANE FILMS chael’s disappearance, a weight that fills the aesthetic doesn’t quite fit the tone or First Season”: Kate Kane (Ruby void of what their present and future the weight. Rose) takes over Gotham’s vigilante could look like without the inertia. Still, the film succeeds in showing duties years after Batman’s disapNighy and Riley keep their grievpearance in this CW series. the family’s love language: Words ing characters restrained, but with “Blue Bloods: The Tenth stick in their throats, maybe, but they pain visible just beyond the surface. Season”: The CBS series stars Tom flow out onto the board game. Alan’s quirks are endearing, though Selleck as the patriarch of a family of ALSO NEW ON DVD AUG. 18 the film’s quirky editing and overall police officers. “Batwoman: The Complete
“Cursed Films”: Documentary series follows behind-the-scenes tragedies of iconic horror movies including “The Exorcist,” “The Crow” and more. “Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons”: Animated web series follows Deathstroke’s (Michael Chiklis) quest for atonement and to take down the evil Jackal (Chris Jai Alex). Also stars vocal talents of Sasha Alexander and Asher Bishop. “Emperor”: Enslaved man on the run Shields “Emperor” Green (Dayo Okeniyi) raids Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, with the help of abolitionist John Brown (James Cromwell). “Military Wives”: A group of women married to troops in Afghanistan start a choir on their base. Stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes. “Open 24 Hours”: A woman recovering from a relationship with a serial killer (Vanessa Grasse) faces C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E
