What鈥檚 your favourite baseball movie? Me, easy: Bull Durham. Not least of all because of the feminist subtext. But also for the exceptional veteran-schools-the-rookie scene about using mindless clich茅s to placate the media.
In addition to this 1988 blockbuster set in the minor leagues, most films about athletes competing against themselves or opponents in the pursuit of optimum performance will appeal to me. Quotable one-liners or otherwise.
The 麻豆传媒映画Asahi is the latest baseball flick, this one a feature film that hits very close to home in its exploration of the historic Japanese league that played at Oppenheimer Park. I won鈥檛 miss it. And over the next two weeks, there are a half dozen more sport-themed movies to check out at the 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival. In one way or another, they focus on the ways sport shapes us and our environment.
For a complete list of films and screenings, visit .
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A Dangerous Game
For some, golf is the game that ruins an otherwise perfectly good walk. For British filmmaker Anthony Baxter, golf is the game that exploits rural neighbourhoods, swills thousands of gallons of drinking water to grow green grass in the desert, and builds manicured playgrounds in countries (such as China) where they are supposedly illegal 鈥� but no one is invited to play but the privileged rich.
In this documentary, Baxter delivers an unflinching follow up to You鈥檝e Been Trumped, the 2011 doc that examined the morally corrupt capitalism of Donald Trump. The tupee鈥檇-wonder sits down with Baxter again for A Dangerous Game.
Screenings: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3, SFU Woodwards; 10 a.m. Oct. 5, Cinematheque; 12:15 p.m. Oct. 9, Vancity Theatre
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Force Majeure
Whistler-Blackcomb stands in for the French Alps in this both comedic and morose family saga about a father who may have failed his wife and children the moment he feared the crashing force of ice and rock coming for his head. They witness a controlled avalanche. He balks.
Director Ruben 脰stlund places this skiing Swiss family on a precipice, but it鈥檚 more interpersonal drama than extreme sport. Their skis stay in the triangular wedge of novices. Did I say it was comic?
Screenings: 12 p.m. Sept. 26, Centre for Performing Arts; 6:30 p.m. Oct. 6, Centre for Performing Arts
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Foxcatcher
An unrecognizable Steve Carell appears, like a Joe Paterno figure, as a mouth-breathing benefactor in a sweatshirt who invigorates and menaces Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (played by Channing Tatum). Does he have too much power?
He invites both Schultz brothers (Dave is played by Mark Ruffalo) to train on his Pennsylvania estate, Foxcatcher Farm. Mark, driven, lays out what he wants: 鈥淢e Winning. America winning.鈥� Oh yeah baby, bring on the hard-headed jingoism.
But what ensues from director Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote) is a cold-blooded tour-de-force, a taught, complex psychological drama and the real-life mental breakdown of a paranoid schizophrenic.
Screenings: 3:15 p.m. Oct. 2, Centre for Performing Arts; 9:30 p.m. Oct. 10, Centre for Performing Arts
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Marinoni
Meet Giuseppe Marinoni, a Montreal septuagenarian who for 40 years has hand-crafted some of some of the most desirable bicycle frames in the country. Just don鈥檛 get too close to the curmudgeon 鈥� at first.
Filmmaker Tony Girardin, using a hand-held camera, is first spurned by the craftsman who has been harassed by hollow hipsters before. The film witnesses the growing camaraderie between director and subject as Marinoni opens himself up to reveal his spirited, visionary drive. Marinoni includes a visit with Canadian cycling legend Jocelyn Lovell, who acheived much of his success on a Marinoni frame.听
A racer in his youth, Marinoni returns to his childhood home in Italy to attempt a record-setting ride done in one hour, one of sport鈥檚 most difficult feats. His newest friend is there, camera in hand even as he helps the cyclist shave his legs before the definitive day.
Screenings: 9:15 p.m. Oct. 2, 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse; 4 p.m. Oct. 4, 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse
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Red Army
Sport was an offensive front in the propaganda war the U.S.S.R. waged on the world and the people caught inside its borders. Hockey was its A-bomb.
Director Gabe Polsky and a Hollywood production team including Werner Herzog and Jerry Weintraub deliver a fascinating and slick, historic romp through the sport鈥檚 past in a country where, like Canada, kids grow up on ice skates but where the KGB supervises how you tie your laces.
Screenings: 5 p.m. Oct. 5, 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse; 10 a.m. Oct. 7, Vancity Theatre; 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9, Centre for Performing Arts
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The 麻豆传媒映画Asahi
Before Nippon Professional Baseball launched in Japan in 1950, Canadian-born Japanese kids played baseball at Oppenheimer Park. This is their story, set in the 1930鈥檚.
The Asahi formed on the eve of the First World War and would later disband when Canada interned Japanese citizens. Between the wars, the Asahi developed a style of play (call it small ball but at the time it was called 鈥渂rain ball鈥�) that out-witted the burlier teams from 麻豆传媒映画and brought their community pride and respect as well as the joy of watching baseball on a summer afternoon and down the stretch as the Asahi won the Pacific Northwest Championship five years in a row.听
Ishii Yuya directed this Canada-Japan production, which has its world premiere at VIFF.
Screenings: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29, Centre for Performing Arts, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 4, Centre for Performing Arts; 1 p.m. Oct. 10, 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse
(If you don't speak Japanese, you'll still understand this trailer. Especially if you know what a bunt implies.)
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Wild
This survivor story is the festival鈥檚 choice for its opening gala screening, which is soldout Thursday night.
The movie is drawn from the memoir by Cheryl Strayed (played by Reese Witherspoon), who straps on hiking boots to tackle the imposing 1,800 kilometres of the Pacific Crest Trail to exorcise her sullied past with drugs, sex work, and divorce while mourning the death of her cherished mother. She is pushed to her limits.
Jean-Marc Vall茅e, fresh off the success of Dallas Buyers Club, delivers another story of redemption.
Screening: 3 p.m. Sept. 27, Centre for Performing Arts
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