Thursday, 28 March 2024

Arts & Life

DRAFT DAY (Rated PG-13)

Quality sports films are not uncommon. More recent really good ones that come to mind include “42” and “Moneyball.” Other popular favorites are “Field of Dreams,” “The Natural,” and “Bull Durham.”

Oddly enough, all the sports films mentioned so far have been focused on baseball, perhaps proving, to some extent, the national pastime’s enduring popularity, even if the NFL claims supremacy.

Ivan Reitman’s “Draft Day,” obviously produced with the cooperation of the NFL, breaks the mold, turning out a solid gridiron saga that’s finely tuned to front office maneuverings rather than pigskin heroics on the turf.

In many respects, “Draft Day” is the football equivalent of “Moneyball,” where it’s about the dynamics of fielding a team. The drama is behind-the-scenes, and here it all takes place in one day, leading up to the NFL’s annual draft of college players at New York’s cherished Radio City Music Hall.

Kevin Costner is like the John Wayne of sports films. Whether it’s the well-known baseball titles or films like “Tin Cup” and “For the Love of the Game,” Costner owns every sports film in the same way Wayne owned the Westerns.

Hardly anybody is more credible than Costner as the aging competitor or athletic mentor. His Sonny Weaver, Jr. is the besieged general manager of the woeful Cleveland Browns, a venerable NFL franchise with a blue collar fan base clamoring for a winning team.

Sonny’s personal and professional life is on trial for the course of one day. His father, the former beloved coach of the Browns, recently passed away. Sports radio hosts still hold a grudge for Sonny having forced his father into retirement a few years back.

The general manager is also carrying on a covert romance with the team’s salary-cap expert, Ali (the fetching Jennifer Garner making the most of a relatively small role). Just for added pressure on Sonny, Ali springs the news that she is pregnant.

Meanwhile, Sonny must also contend with a few egomaniacs in the organization, none of which adds more pressure than team owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella), who insists on making a “big splash” in the draft by going for Heisman Trophy winner Bo Callahan (Josh Pence).

The other most troubling person with a swelled head is the volatile Coach Penn (Denis Leary), new to the Browns and eager to pick up another oversized Super Bowl championship ring. Coach Penn is equally insistent that the team go for Callahan.

The Seattle Seahawks have the first pick in the draft, and so it is up to Sonny to do some wheeling-and-dealing for Cleveland to get first choice. To do so, he’s obliged to trade away his number one draft picks for the next three years. Ouch! Anyone can tell you that’s a tough bargain.

Clever and resourceful, Sonny treats the draft day negotiations as if he were channeling Garry Kasparov in a chess tournament. There are a lot of moving pieces during the course of the day where Sonny engages general managers from Buffalo to Houston and places in-between.

Keeping cool under pressure, Sonny must also contend with the persistence of NFL prospect Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in “42”), whose college record is blemished by an infraction but who otherwise appears to be a person of solid character.

One takeaway from “Draft Day” is that character does matter. It’s a subject that weighs heavily on Sonny’s mind as he digs deeper into the background of Bo Callahan, the star quarterback of the University of Wisconsin, where even his coach (Sam Elliott) seems oddly reticent to sing his praises.

Tempers flare from time to time, whether in the Cleveland war room, where Sonny keeps his assistants mostly in line with the game plan, though the hot-headed Coach Penn is practically unhinged during Sonny’s controversial moves to keep everyone guessing until the clock almost runs out on making the draft pick.

Tom Welling’s Brian Drew is the team’s current quarterback, but he’s coming off an injury that some believe has him washed up. Naturally, the veteran player thinks otherwise and delivers a potent message to the GM.

Ivan Reitman (“Ghostbusters” and “Animal House”) has a long track record of hit comedies. “Draft Day” is a departure for the director, both in tone and subject matter. While there are humorous moments, “Draft Day” is a sports drama focused on characters rather than action on the field.

Just like “Moneyball,” there’s plenty of talk in the backroom and on the phones. To spice up the conversations, the director employs the split-screen technique to add some tension to the negotiating process. Mostly, it works, but some may tire of the frequency.

Before leaving home for the office on draft day, Sonny tucks a slip of paper into his pocket. Since the camera lingers on this move, we know it has significance. Indeed, it explains everything once all is said and done.

I’ll admit that being a sports fan facilitates the enjoyment of this movie. But Costner and the whole cast are so good, and the dialogue is so sharp and crisp with palpable tension in the air, that “Draft Day” is intriguing, compelling entertainment.

To this sports-loving critic, “Draft Day” has jumped right into the pantheon of the best sports movies, and that’s a tribute to the entire production team. They run with an attitude that produces a champion.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake community members are invited to attend the next “Family Movie Night” at 8 p.m. Friday, April 25.

Deed & Word-Church in the Park will host the free event at the Cache Creek Apartment clubhouse, 16080 Dam Road in Clearlake.

There will be fresh-popped popcorn (flavored or plain), snacks, plus a family friendly movie displayed on the large movie screen from a projector.

Bring your own chair or cozy blanket to sit on.

This will be an indoor event so the movie showing will take place rain or shine.

All Children must be accompanied by an adult.

tedkooserchair

Let’s celebrate the first warm days of spring with a poem for mushroom hunters, this one by Amy Fleury, who lives in Louisiana.

First Morel

Up from wood rot,
wrinkling up from duff
and homely damps,
spore-born and cauled
like a meager seer,
it pushes aside earth
to make a small place
from decay. Bashful,
it brings honeycombed
news from below
of the coming plenty
and everything rising.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Copyright 2013 by Amy Fleury from her most recent book of poems, Sympathetic Magic, Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Amy Fleury and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

renfairegroup

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The seventh and eighth grade students of Konocti Christian Academy invites all members of the community to watch their performance of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” on Tuesday, May 6.

The performance will take place at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater on the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St.  

This will be their second opportunity to perform, as they will have had their primary production at KCA’s ninth annual Renaissance Faire the previous Saturday.

Their teacher, Ben Sombs, explained, “The students have an amazing understanding of Shakespearean humor, and they truly bring the story to life.”

The production features an abbreviated script which retains the original language of Shakespeare and full costuming of the 18 students portraying 19 different characters.

There will be no charge, but any donations would be gladly accepted.

The students have been raising money for their end of the year trip to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and would appreciate your assistance.

Join them for an evening of merriment.

KCA is located on the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport and continues to offer quality Christian education for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, which includes challenging academics, high standards in character, Biblical training, and a low teacher-to-student ratio.  

The school’s Web site is www.konoctichristianacademy.com .

renfairejosh

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Theatre Co. is preparing to have is yearly election for board of directors.

Interested persons should email a short introduction (approximately one paragraph) with contact information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; this information also can be mailed to P.O. Box 802, Lakeport, CA 95464.

This short biography should be prepared and sent no later than May 10.

A board director is expected to attend every meeting of the board (currently monthly) as well as participate in some substantial part of every performance and/or production.

A board director must be a current LCTC member and more than 18 years of age.

The Lake County Theatre Co. is proud to have a diverse and strong board built of community members with a shared love of theater. They look forward to welcoming our new directors soon.

If there are any questions please email or call 707-355-2272.

Media consolidation of the major television networks results in ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, the major players, having developed in recent years their own media empires that go beyond the traditional network paradigm.

For example, FOX has its cable outlet FX, and now another cable spinoff called FXX. I don’t know what’s next for FOX, but if it’s an F followed by triple Xs, I’d wonder if they are venturing into the soft-core porn late night world that was once, if not still, the realm of Showtime.

Just like its competitors, NBC, or I should say NBC Universal, as a corporate entity with multiple cable platforms, has found a way to reach TV critics outside the conventional winter and summer press tours.

Held during the month of April, NBC promotes upcoming programs in what they call the NBC Universal Summer Press day, even though the calendar tells everyone it is spring. Just like baseball, though, hope is in the air this early in the season.

Arguably, the best part of the press day, apart from the cocktail hour and the celebrity appearances, is the near absence of network executives grinding through the usual give-and-take with journalists, where information given may be only slightly more revealing than a press conference conducted by state-run media in a banana republic.

To be fair, as well as more precise, Jennifer Salke, President of NBC Entertainment, appeared on the NBC Comedy Playground panel, but not in the usual press tour format, and to be honest, I missed the session.

You can’t accuse NBC of not having a sense of fun, or of failing to cash in on a surprise hit. Brace yourself, but “Sharknado 2: The Second One” is coming to the Syfy Channel, the sequel to the beloved disaster horror B movie.

For the uninitiated, the original “Sharknado” was about a freak hurricane that flooded Los Angeles with man-eating sharks that terrorized the populace. The TV movie has achieved the iconic status of “cult film.”

This time around, a freak weather system wreaks havoc on New York City. While sharks are taking a bite of the Big Apple, original film stars Ian Ziering and Tara Reid head to the East Coast to battle the blood-thirsty predators. “Sharknado 2” will be unleashed on July 30th.

While the press day offers a peak at new programs coming within the next couple of months, the first new show to hit TV screens will be the comedy “Playing House” on the USA Network, starting April 29.

Conceived by writing partners and co-stars Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, “Playing House” is a female buddy show in which Parham’s Maggie Caruso is an expectant mother determined to create a happy home for her baby, despite her marriage crumbling.

Maggie finds help and support from best friend Emma (Jessica St. Clair), an energetic businesswoman willing to forgo her overseas career, after the discovery that Maggie’s husband is having an online affair with a muscular German woman.

Early episodes of “Playing House” look too much like a show trying to play safe, not nearly edgy enough when Emma has awkward moments with her high school flame, the local cop. What’s more, attempts to drive unseen raccoons out of the back yard are just not that exciting.

Coming to NBC’s primetime schedule on May 27th is the promising drama “The Night Shift,” set in the emergency ward of San Antonio Memorial Hospital, where the toughest and craziest medical cases always seem to come through the door.

Every shift is a fight between the heroic efforts of saving lives and the hard truths of running an underfunded hospital. The men and women working the night shift are an irreverent and special breed, particularly adrenaline junkie TC Callahan (Eoin Macken), a former Army medic.

Even though the doctors mean business, the casual pranks and wild antics of the staff turn “The Night Shift” into something more like a medical “Animal House” than “ER” and “House, M.D.”

Another comedy about single guys in various states of arrested development, as they hang mostly at a Detroit tavern, arrives on the NBC schedule with “Undateable,” premiering on May 29th.

Comedian Chris D’Elia’s Danny Burton fancies himself a real ladies man who must mentor his buddies who live up to the show’s title. Bar owner Justin (Brent Morin) lacks finesse, while the others in the group are just a bunch of oddballs unlikely to find romance.

Amy Poehler (NBC’s “Parks and Recreation) has teamed up with her brother Greg Poehler to form a production company that aims to produce international TV programs. Their first series, “Welcome to Sweden,” comes to NBC on July 10th and will debut on Sweden’s TV4 network as its first English-language comedy.

Poehler’s Bruce Evans is a successful money manager for celebrities, living in New York with the beautiful Emma Wiik (Josephine Bornebusch), who decides to move back to Stockholm to accept a prestigious banking job.

Emma is surprised and thrilled that Greg decides to chuck his career and move to Sweden so they can begin a new life together. With no job, friends or real clue about what’s in store, Bruce is challenged by the culture clash.

“Welcome to Sweden” is a fish-out-of-water story for Bruce, who wants to win over Emma’s strange family. Lena Olin, as Emma’s mother Viveka, takes an immediate dislike to Bruce, so the tension is palpable.

The pilot episode that I watched may be a challenge for American audiences. A good part of the dialogue is in Swedish with English sub-titles. Subsequent programs seemed to have less Swedish talk, but still I wonder if the sub-titles may prove off-putting.

“Defiance” returns for a second season on the Syfy Channel in June, and the good news is that Linda Hamilton brings her trademark full-on badness to the happenings at the Earth Republic.

I still don’t know anything about the Sprout channel, but they are promoting “Astroblast,” which is probably children’s programming.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

Upcoming Calendar

28Mar
03.28.2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Vision resource group
30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Second annual Bunny Brunch
30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Lakeport Community Cleanup Day
30Mar
03.30.2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Lake County poet laureate inauguration
31Mar
03.31.2024
Easter Sunday
31Mar
03.31.2024 1:15 pm - 1:45 pm
Lakeport Rotary Club Easter Egg Hunt
1Apr
04.01.2024
Easter Monday
1Apr
10Apr
15Apr
04.15.2024
Tax Day

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