For a movie about two guys who play professional soccer for a living, “Rudo y Cursi” has an alarming lack of actual soccer playing in it. It would be easy to label the Mexican import starring Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal as a sports film, but it wouldn’t really be true. Unfortunately, the kind of movie that it actually is isn’t all that original either.

Essentially, Carlos Cuaron (who co-wrote “Y Tu Mamá También” with his brother Alfonso) has directed a typical rise-and-fall picture. Granted, it has loads of local flavor and two appealing leads, but it adds little to the genre and is too melodramatic to rise above.

The plot is pretty formulaic stuff, as it follows two half brothers who are implausibly plucked out of obscurity by a talent scout (Guillermo Francella) when his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Francella’s seedy/philosophical narration is one heavy-handed device in a movie that at least has a clear grasp of its characters—his seedy scout in particular seems to get equal amount of personal pleasure helping his boys to success as he does enjoying the success they have afforded him.

For American audiences, the cultural mores of a poor extended family living on a banana plantation will be nice window dressing, and “Rudo y Cursi” does a nice job sketching a portrait of extended family living in a small Mexican city.

Their soccer positions are extensions of their actual personalities: Bernal plays the fiesty and temperamental forward who dreams of bigger scores and Luna is the level-headed goalkeeper who must save everybody else. But if this movie ends in a championship showdown between two brothers on opposite teams, I’m going to be really disappointed … aww, man!

Once they move to the big city, of course, each brother tastes success in their own way while also indulging in self-destructive behavior that will threaten the very success they have always dreamed of. Tato—nicknamed Cursi, played by Bernal—wants to be a pop singer, but seems to be the only person who doesn’t understand he can’t sing. (He does do an atonal traditional Mexican version of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” that’s pretty funny.) The artificial world of showbiz is clearly something that the wide-eyed, trusting lad isn’t ready for either.

On the other hand, Beto—nicknamed Rudo, played by Luna—is a father who wants to provide for his wife and child but also has a severe gambling problem. From the first moment he meets a sleazy high-stakes mobster, it’s pretty easy to see where this is all headed, and pretty disappointing to see that that’s exactly how it plays out.
“Rudo y Cursi” certainly benefits from the performances of Luna and Bernal, whose onscreen chemistry has lost nothing since the pair burst on the international movie scene in 2001 in the decidedly more layered and poignant “Y Tu Mamá También.” The good nature they exude is infectious and helps the story over some rough patches for sure.

The film also scores with its frank and cynical view of Mexican professional sports, where payoffs and egos decide the fate of more games than actual talent does.

The story really is about the bond between brothers against the vibrant and tempting backdrop of Mexico City, so the lack of actual soccer playing doesn’t really hurt the movie all that much, but it is odd when key shots of the main characters seem to be missing right in the middle of an important game while Cuaron cuts to crowd shots. In the end, “Rudo y Cursi” is engaging because of its setting and stars and little else.

Tags: bernal, cuaron, cursi, film, football, luna, movie, review, rudo, Rudo y Cursi, soccer

Manhattan, KS in the house!

There was a brief “whoop” from the crowd last night at the advance screening of Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic “W.” when the Bill Snyder-coached 2003 Kansas State football team made a brief appearance in the movie.

Having gone to school there, played probably more than a hundred rock shows there, and since I appear as a regular movie commentator on Friday mornings on 101.5 FM, I whooped quietly to myself.

The cameo of sorts took place in a scene where Bushie (played perfectly by Josh Brolin) is depressed, watching football by himself, when the final score to the 2004 Fiesta Bowl comes on the screen.

The camera cuts to the ABC graphic of the final score: Kansas State Wildcats 28, Ohio State Buckeyes 35; a disappointing end to a great season that saw the Wildcats beat #1-ranked OU for the Big 12 Championship 35-7. (The Fiesta Bowl was the game where quarterback Ell Roberson was accused of sexual assault right beforehand and it was unclear whether or not he would play. He did.)

Since no filmmaker ever just randomly inserts something on TV into a movie without a certain amount of symbolism or foreshadowing, I was trying to figure out why Stone would show a screenshot from this particular game. He even cuts to it, it’s not just on in the background! Obviously, he wanted to place the scene in a specific time (January 2004), but there has to be more to it than that.

One idea that leaped to mind suddenly as I was watching was that it may serve as foreshadowing for the infamous moment that K-State student Jeremy Parker scammed his way up to a microphone at a Bush appearance at the school’s Landon Lecture. He told the President he would love ”Brokeback Mountain” and, as a rancher, he should check it out.

Well, it wasn’t foreshadowing for that scene, because that scene never appeared in the movie. So, why did Stone use this moment to put on the TV? Was he drawing a parallel between Bush’s popularity after the Iraq War went awry and K-State, who went into the game as favorites and came out losers? I’ll probably have to see the movie again (and probably will soon; it was quite good) to place the moment in the context of the story to know for sure. Anybody that goes to see it this weekend, though, keep on the lookout for it. Think about where the story is at that moment and what significance it has. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Since you never get to see “the man behind the curtain” on the website, here’s a peek. Above is Scene-Stealers director/editor extraordinaire Dustin Schirer in action at a recent KSU football game! Scary, I know.

Tags: 2004 fiesta bowl, bill snyder, brokeback mountain, football, george w. bush, josh brolin, k-state, kansas state, landon lecture, oliver stone, w., wildcats

The first thing I will promise from this review is that there will be no bad football puns—no “Clooney fumbles at the goal line,” no “quarterback runs wrong play from pigskin playbook,” no “director scores a touchdown but misses the extra point.” I just won’t do it, you hear? I won’t stoop to that level, you hear? And just because I’ve already printed those words doesn’t mean I’ve already…nevermind!

If I had to pick one person from Hollywood to helm and star in a loving tribute to the old school screwball comedies of the 1930s, it would be George Clooney. He’s already shown he can act exaggerated repartee to perfection in the Coens’ slapstick and slapdash Depression-era Homer interpretation “O Brother Where Art Thou?” Able to spit out a wordy froth of Olde English and Southern drawl in machine-gun fashion, Clooney earned himself a Golden Globe and helped make that film a cult classic.

“Leatherheads” doesn’t contain all the traits of a screwball comedy (such as class issues, topsy-turvy gender roles, and mistaken identity), but there are enough romantic triangles, tight spots, and fast-talking to know what director Clooney was going for. No matter how accurate the set design and costumes are or how many times the characters in “Leatherheads” use phrases like “cook your goose,” the movie never builds to that ridiculous fever pitch that it should.

At least as a sports film, it is anachronistic enough to not grow tired. There’s no underdog team fighting to reach the big game in a slow motion climax—just a story about a man who doesn’t want to grow up. Loosely based on the story of NFL running back John McNally, “Leatherheads” finds pro football struggling to survive while its college counterparts play to sold-out crowds.

An aging team captain named Dodge Connolly (Clooney) recruits a war hero and university star named Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to play for his Duluth Bulldogs and things start to turn around for the whole league. Meanwhile, big-city reporter Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger) is assigned to uncover the truth about Rutherford’s war record, and ends up the object of both men’s desire.

The story wants to be madcap and freewheeling, but it doesn’t quite take flight. The overgrown child who must save his team when faced with the prospect of getting a real job is a good set-up, but too many madcap situations are resolved too easily. The movie just rolls along with its carefree, lighthearted attitude, but without the zip that it truly needs.

One problem is that the wordplay—which is delivered by all involved as charmingly as you could ask for—is just not that clever. This is too bad, since the screenplay by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly has been bouncing around Hollywood for over 15 years. It is almost as if the director wanted to try his hand at the genre, so he grabbed the only movie out there that fit.

Another problem is that a lot of the gags fall flat, and some end with an awkward fade-out into the next scene. When Dodge and Lexie are being chased by police, they happen upon a suicide jumper. Trapped on a ledge, the pair decide that the net below that’s meant for him is their only way out. Since they are dressed as cops themselves (long story) and the desperate man’s family and more police oblivious to the chase are below, the scene is rife with comic possibilities. Unfortunately, it’s over all too soon, and one cop mumbles something about the jumpers being police as the scene fizzles out.

It may be more appropriate to compare the feel of “Leatherheads” to “The Sting,” a minor trifle starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford that won Best Picture in 1974. Like “The Sting,” it is too long and it never builds up to any heated frenzy, it just kind of exists, out of its time, to remind us that these kinds of films sprung up naturally from the Vaudeville aesthetic and the effects of the Great Depression.

“Leatherheads,” if anything, is an admirable attempt at recreating this specific brand of agile, breezy comedy. At least “The Sting” had an effective con artist plot to hang itself on, while Clooney’s effort seems like just that—an effort.

Tags: football, George Clooney, John Krasinski, Leatherheads, movie review, NFL, Renée Zellweger, screwball comedy