Radio

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “I don't know the slightest thing about the true story that inspired "Radio," and I don't really want to, because the movie has convinced me that it's pretty close to real life. I believe that because (1) the closing credits include footage of the real Radio Kennedy and Coach Jones, and (2) because the movie isn't hyped up with the usual contrivances.” This is a film about football that doesn’t rely for its climax on the important game.

There are scenes that in another movie might have looked forced – the way the local boosters club congregate after every game in the local barbershop to get the coach’s report and insult him. Doesn’t this type of event happen in move small towns? Ebert noted, “Just like there's always a diner filled with regulars who apparently sit there 24 hours a day waiting to act as the local Greek chorus? Maybe, but by the end of "Radio" I was half-convinced that if I were to visit Anderson, S.C., on the night of a high school game, I could walk downtown and see the boosters right there through the barbershop window.”

“Radio,” released in 2003, is a movie based on a Sports Illustrated article, written by Gary Smith, about the way a series of Anderson teams and coaches have adopted James “Radio” Kennedy, a an with special needs, as a team mascot and cheerleader. He is well-loved, and we see he has a good heart and drive needed only when the right moment gives him that time in life. The movie focuses in story form on Radio’s first season with the team, and about the bond that is created between the teenager (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and tough, no-nonsense Coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris).

When we first see Radio, he goes on his usual walks through the town, pushing a shopping cart filled with radios and listening to his favorite portable one. One day a few football players lock him in an equipment shed and throw footballs at it, scaring him, and after Jones rescues Radio, he makes it his mission to have Radio become involved in his school football team.

Jones’ wife Linda, played by Debra Winger, obviously has the necessary scenes where he complains that he is always focused on his job. His daughter Mary Helen Jones, played by Sarah Drew, obviously has the needed scenes where she stays out too late and gives other signals that she needs more of her father’s attention. Now here’s what we don’t see coming: Not much is made in the needed way of these subplots, because Jones is a nice guy, and his family understands him and the daughter kind of resolves her own issues.

Yes, there is somewhat of an antagonist. Johnny Clay (Riley Smith) is the star player who automatically bullies Radio, maybe because his dad Frank (Chris Mulkey) is also a bully (since Frank is the town banker, and a hotshot in the hotshot in the booster club?). Frank thinks Radio is a “distraction” to the team, but Radio is really liked, and Coach Jones is such a good soul that even the bullies seem to be going through the plans just to be good people and give the film some drama.

Ebert commented, “"Radio" is such a sweet expression of the better side of human nature, indeed, that it's surprising to find it in theaters and not on one of the more innocuous cable channels.” With Gooding and Harris, it has the best people, and a screenplay by Mike Rich. Director Mike Tollin tells his story as easy and forward as he can, with no funny tricks, and what we get is just what we want, a story about a town that welcomes a teenager with special needs for its benefit and his own. Radio teaches the town, Jones says, by treating everyone the way we should all treat each other. The teenager does not have the ability to be mean, nasty, or dishonest.

The role is difficult for an actor. Ebert noted, “Gooding wants to make Radio lovable without being grotesquely cute, and mostly he succeeds, although Gooding is by instinct an expansive actor (the kind of man you imagine underlines his signature), and maybe a calmer actor like Ice Cube would have been a good choice. It was enough for Gooding to make me like Radio; in a few scenes I think he wanted me to pet him. Ed Harris is well cast in a role like Coach Jones, because he brings along confident masculine authority without even having to think about it. The other actors are pretty much pro forma.” Alfre Woodard plays the sincere high school principal, S. Epatha Merkerson is convincing as Radio’s loving mom, and Debra Winger is strong in a small role that, as Ebert describes, “makes me want to see her in a larger one.”

Now the if the movie’s story sounds too good to be true, that’s probably what you’ll think. There is no sarcasm in “Radio,” no angle or edge. It’s about what it’s about, with an open, warm and loving nature. Every once in a while, human nature shows itself in a way we can feel good about, and this is one of those times.

For families, for those who find most movies too sarcastic, for those who want to feel good in a nice and uncomplicated way, “Radio” is the one for you. Others may find it too slow or nice or innocent. You know what kind of films you like.

This is another movie that I saw a little bit of on one of the movie channels on cable before I found it On Demand and saw the whole movie. This is another one of those emotional films that can be difficult to watch because of seeing what Radio goes through, but it’s a feel good, slice of life film that everyone should watch because they will love this. I really liked it, and I think everyone will to. I recommend this film to everyone, especially since the real Radio passed away two years ago. See it in his honor and see what kind of a powerhouse this film is.

Thank you for joining in on “Special Needs Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it and wait a minute, next month is October. You know what that means…. HALLOWEEN MONTH!!! Stay tuned to see what franchise I will be looking at this year, which is a funny one that will bring about some laughter during that month.

I Am Sam

“Daddy, did God mean for you to be like this, or was it an accident? That’s little Lucy Dawson, asking her father why he isn’t exactly like other people. She’s a smart kid and figures out the answer herself, and when a student at her Elementary School asks, “Why does your father act like a retard?” she explains, “He is.” “I Am Sam,” released in 2001, stars Chris Penn’s older brother, Sean Penn, as Lucy’s dad, Sam, who has the IQ of a 7-year-old but is trying to raise the daughter he fathered with a homeless woman. The mother, Rebecca, played by Caroline Keenan, disappeared right after giving birth (her farewell words: “All I wanted was a place to sleep”), and now Sam is doing his best to deal with this, despite sometimes Lucy has to help him with her homework. Eventually Lucy decides to stop learning so she won’t go further than her dad. “I don’t want to read if you can’t,” she tells him.

Same loves the Beatles (his favorite member is George). He named his daughter after Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and has learned most of his life lessons from Beatles songs. The lesson “I Am Sam” wants to teach us, “All you need is love.” This is not completely true. Sam loves his daughter more than anyone else, and she loves him, but it will take more than love for him to get her through grade school and the teenage years and see her off as an adult after helping her get out there. Since the movie does not believe this, it has a serious disagreement with most of the audience.

Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Sean Penn does as well as can be expected with Sam, but it is painful to see an actor of his fire and range locked into a narrow range of emotional and intellectual responses. Not long ago a veteran moviegoer told me that when he sees an actor playing a mentally retarded person, he is reminded of a performer playing "Lady of Spain" on an accordion: The fingers fly, but are the song or the instrument worthy of the effort? The kind of performance Penn delivers in "I Am Sam," which may look hard, is easy, compared, say, to his amazing work in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown." As Robert Kohner observes in his Variety review: "In a way, Edward Norton's turn in "The Score" in which his thief used a mental handicap as a disguise, gave the trade secret away when it comes to this sort of performance."” The movie sets up the Department of Children and Family Services and its attorney as the antagonists when they take Lucy away from Sam and try to put her with a foster family. The savior is a tough, tenacious Beverly Hills lawyer named Rita, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who takes Sam’s case on a pro bono basis, to prove to the other people in her office that she’s not a selfish jerk. This character and performance would be perfect in a tense comedy, but exist in a different reality to where this film takes place.

Sam has the types of problems that come up in story conferences more than in life. For example, he’s sitting in a diner when an attractive young woman smiles at him. He smiles back. She comes over and asks him if he would like to have a good time. He says he sure would. Then a cop jumps up and arrests him for visiting a prostitute. Back at the station, the cop admits, “This is the first time in 19 years I actually believe a guy who says he didn’t know she was a prostitute.” Actually, this is the first time in history that a man has been arrested on promiscuous charges for talking to a woman in a diner before any clothing is removed, money has been exchanged, or services have been talked about.

Ebert said, “The movie climaxes in a series of courtroom scenes, which follow the time-honored formulas for such scenes, with the intriguing difference that this time the evil prosecutor (Richard Schiff) seems to be making good sense.” At one point he turns mockingly to Rita and says, “This is an anecdote for you at some luncheon, but I’m here every day. You’re out the door, but you know who I see come back? The child.” Well, isn’t he correct? The apparent adoptive mother, played by Laura Dern, further causes problems with this dilemma by not being an evil child-beater who wants the monthly state payments, but a loving, sensitive mother who would probably be great for Lucy. Sam more or less understands this, but does the adoptive mother? As the film ends, the problem is in doubt.

“I Am Sam” is targeted at audiences who will related to an emotional relationship between Sam and Lucy, played by a young Dakota Fanning, who does a believable job as the smart daughter. Ebert noted, “Every device of the movie's art is designed to convince us Lucy must stay with Sam, but common sense makes it impossible to go the distance with the premise.” You can’t have heroes and villains when the wrong side is making the best sense.

My brother had told me about this movie, and I watched this On Demand one day. Be forewarned, this is a very emotional movie. Not to say that this isn’t a good movie and I recommend it, I do, but just be careful when watching this. I take it that this sort of case happened in real life before, but this is one of those movies that is hard to get through, but when you do, you feel relieved at the end. Check it out and see for yourself. I don’t know if I can ever watch this movie again, but if I do, I will have to contain myself.

Sorry for the late posting, I got sidetracked today with other work that I completely forgot to write this review. Now wait until next week when I finish off “Special Needs Month” with another movie I saw a glimpse of on cable one time that I checked out On Demand that is on par with this film.

Rudy

“Look at you. You’re 5-foot-nothing. A hundred and nothing. And with hardly a speck of athletic ability.”

This is said by Fortune, a groundskeeper at the Notre Dame stadium, played by Charles S. Dutton, to Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger Jr., whose dream is to play for the Fighting Irish. Rudy is not crazy. He doesn’t expect to start. He has a lifetime dream to just wear the uniform and run on the field for one game during the regular season and get his name in the newspaper in the school archives.

Almost everyone except Fortune thinks his dream can’t come true.

Rudy comes from a working-class family in Joliet, where is father, played by Ned Beatty, agrees with his family, his teachers, his neighbors and basically everybody in saying to Rudy that he does not have the physique and the intelligence to get accepted into a top school like Notre Dame. Rudy later gets tested and sees he has dyslexia.

However, Rudy does not stop. Roger Ebert said in his review, “And although his story reads, in outline, like an anthology of cliches from countless old rags-to-riches sports movies, "Rudy" persists, too. It has a freshness and an earnestness that gets us involved, and by the end of the film we accept Rudy's dream as more than simply sports sentiment. It's a small but powerful illustration of the human spirit.”

Ebert continued, “The movie was directed by David Anspaugh, who directed another great Indiana sports movie, "Hoosiers," in 1986. Both films show an attention to detail, and a preference for close observation of the characters rather than sweeping sports sentiment.” In “Rudy,” released in 1993, Anspaugh finds a serious, loving performance by Sean Astin, the former teen star, as a quiet, determined kid who knows he is not the smartest bulb, but is determined to do the best he can by playing his cards right.

To begin, he can’t get into Notre Dame. He doesn’t have the grades, but he’s accepted across the street at Holy Cross, where an understanding priest, played by the caring Robert Prosky, gives him advice and encouragement. Finally, Rudy is accepted by Notre Dame after four semesters, one of the few remaining big football schools that still has tryouts for “walk-ons” – kids without bright high school careers or athletic scholarships.

The film takes place in the mid-1970s. The Notre Dame coach is Ara Parseghian, played by Jason Miller. He doesn’t know what to make of the small man who is happy to play on a practice team and put his all-in week after week so that the big Irish lineman can really beat on him on their way to a Saturday victory. Rudy isn’t even that good enough to be one of the subs, but he has great heart (something that is looked at a little too often in the dialogue).

The movie is not overfilled with superfluous subplots. His girlfriend, played by Lili Taylor, is left behind, and for four years, Rudy becomes a grind, studying nonstop to make his grades, and sometimes sleeping on a cot in the groundskeeper’s room because he doesn’t have money for rent. His father continues to think he’s crazy, but Rudy proves him wrong.

Underdog movies are a strong genre and never become obsolete. They’re very predictable, in a way that few movie underdogs ever lose in the large resolution. The idea is largely appealing, however, because everyone can predict one way or another.

Ebert noted, “In "Rudy," Astin's performance is so self-effacing, so focused and low-key, that we lose sight of the underdog formula and begin to focus on this dogged kid who won't quit.” And the large resolution is one of the most emotional ones, just the way it’s supposed to be.

This is a very inspirational movie. You must see this movie. I saw this in sixth grade, and it became one of my all-time favorite movies. After seeing this, you will learn to not listen to the nay-sayers and haters because dreams do come true. George Carlin said on Inside the Actors Studio, “Dream come true. Dream your dreams and massage them and you’ll live them out. I’m telling you it works.” Rudy is proof of that. Because if Rudy could pull this off, why can’t everyone else? I had those doubts before, but I made sure to persevere and make sure I did what I love doing, and I feel like I’m on that path. Check this one if you haven’t, I give it a huge recommendation.

Look out next week when I review a movie that I have been thinking about reviewing, which is a film my brother told me about, in “Special Needs Month.”

Of Mice and Men

I was really confused about what to review for this month. I don’t know why that was, as I never had that sort of problem before, but I guess when I was looking at how many weeks there are, I was unsure what I could review to fill out the entire month with. Finally, I decided to review some films that dealt with special needs. That’s right, this month will be dedicated to some famous films I saw that talks about special needs in some shape or form. Let’s get started with the 1992 classic that is based on probably my personal favorite book I read in high school, “Of Mice and Men.”

“And will there be rabbits, George?” “Yeah, Lennie. There’ll be rabbits.”

There is a type of mark that is left with the most familiar lines in novels. Because we know them very well, we always smile when we see them, and they can break the reality of the story they’re trying to tell. Where has Hamlet not have been told without the famous “To be, or not to be?” quote.

Roger Ebert noted in his review, “In John Steinbeck's novel “Of Mice and Men,” made into an enduringly popular movie, the lines about the rabbits have became emblems for the whole relationship between George and Lennie -- the quiet-spoken farm laborer and the sweet, retarded cousin he has taken under his arm. I would not have thought I could believe the line about the rabbits one more time, but this movie made me do it, as Lennie asks about the farm they'll own one day, and George says, yes, it will be just as they've imagined it.”

Lennie is played by John Malkovich and George is played by Gary Sinise, who also directed this film, using an adaptation by Horton Foote. Ebert said, “The most sincere compliment I can pay them is to say that all of them - writer and actors - have taken every unnecessary gesture, every possible gratuitous note, out of these characters.” The story is as genuine and real as the original novel which was invented by Steinbeck. Because they don’t try to do anything fancy – don’t try to it make anything other than exactly what it is – they have a great success.

The time is the Great Depression. Men ride the trains, living in poor camps, looking for a day’s work. Two of them are George and Lennie, who together might make a perfect person, Lennie with his great strength and ease, George with his intelligence and astute. George does the thinking for them, and Lennie does a lot of the work. In the harvest season, they find themselves working on a place with a lot of guys, and a foreman named Curley (Casey Siemaszko) and Curley’s wife (Sherilyn Fenn, who is never named in the novel or in the film).

Curley’s wife is gorgeous, and she knows it. Ebert mentioned that Fenn “enjoys her little starring role on the farm -- likes to know the eyes of the men follow her as she walks across the yard, just as in Paris a woman walks a little differently past a cafe.” Curley, a cruel bully, does not enjoy that so much.

Lennie does not really understand every implication of the situation, but he knows he feels good when Curley’s wife asks him to stroke her soft brown hair. George warns him to stay away because she’s trouble. However, Curley’s wife makes that difficult. She enjoys teasing the slow giant, like he was a dog tied up away from contact. One day she hits a bad nerve, and despite him only trying to be nice to her, he gets confused and scared and doesn’t know his own strength. Then, the men and the dogs chase after him, and George won’t be able to handle this one with his fast thinking.

What is this story really about? Ebert answers, “There are a lot of possibilities, from the Lennie-as-Saint theory, to the feminist deconstruction that has no doubt been performed more lately. The highest praise I can give the filmmakers is that none of them seem to have any theories at all. They give us characters, a milieu, some events.” The main tragedy of the story is that these two men have a friendship that is relatable – they have an interaction where one takes with his needs and gives with his abilities – and when George isn’t there Lennie gets into trouble where he is not at fault, and the world beats them down.

Sinise admitted that Of Mice and Men was his favorite novel when he was younger. It led him to love Steinbeck, and he eventually played Tom Joad on stage in the famous Steppenwolf production of “The Grapes of Wrath.” Then he directed his first movie, “Miles from Home,” about two brothers who grow up on a farm in Iowa. One is more sober and responsible, the other more reckless. They can’t find the balance, and end up having lots of problems. The hidden theme is similar to the one in Of Mice and Men: Two men together make a relatable camaraderie, but neither is completely separatable. You can see how important this part is to Sinise. This is so important that in this movie he doesn’t play around with it. The story itself says all he wants to say.

If you have read the book and want to see a good adaptation of it, then see this movie. It almost brings the book to life in its entirety. There are parts from the book that were not included in the movie, but that is to be expected from an adaptation. I have yet to see a novel adaptation that includes everything in the film. Still, this is a good adaptation that everyone should check out since Sinise really treated this one with care. You will love it, I promise.

Look out next week when I look at one of my all-time favorite movies that I also saw in school in “Special Needs Month.”