inning by inning Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Festivals. As one of our two resident Canadians, Monika B. fittingly wrote about the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off tonight. If Telluride warmed things up for the fall film scene, Toronto aims to light the sucker on fire. The hardest part for indie fanatics is keeping up with all the offerings that will soon be on tap. Keep it right here at Cinematical for our coverage from Toronto, and watch this space every week to catch up on any major news items you might have missed. (And for those who keep asking, yes, The Brothers Bloom, pictured in the collage in the upper left, will be coming to DVD soon -- it's due on September 29, complete with an audio commentary by director Rian Johnson and producer Ram Bergman plus deleted scenes.)

Deals. Acquisition news is spiraling out of control, so I suggest checking indieWIRE for the latest and greatest, where they have details on deals for Richard Linklater's latest, wild and funny music doc Nerdcore Rising, and much more.

Online / On-Demand Viewing. If you missed Linklater's baseball doc Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach when it played on ESPN, now's your chance to catch up -- it's just become available at the iTunes movie store. Don't hesitate to check it out if you're not a sports person; Jette Kernion says: "I'm not into baseball at all, but [the coach] is fascinating to watch at work." If you're a basketball nut and a doc lover, you might enjoy 3 Points, which follows Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady on a trip to Darfur; it's available at Hulu.

Immigration joys and sorrows at the Indie Weekend Box Office -- after the jump!

Clockwise from upper left: Revolutionary Road, Defiance, He's Just Not That Into You, The Graduate, Anaconda, Fletch.

Revolutionary Road
Leonardo DiCaprio re-teamed with Kate Winslet, Michael Sheen Shannon * in a blistering supporting role, Sam Mendes examining suburbia, an adaptation of a classic American novel by Richard Yates; what could possibly go wrong? "In truth, it's both relentlessly grim and nearly pointless," wrote Jeffrey M. Anderson. "The only thing it does really well is create a feeling of suffocation." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

He's Just Not That Into You
Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper and Scarlet Johansson star in a movie that will rot your brain. Put more kindly by William Goss: "This film feels more like a one night stand than anything else: you'll enjoy taking it home overnight, but when tomorrow comes, it's less a matter of calling it as merely recalling it." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Defiance
Daniel Craig drinks martinis protects fellow Jews from the Nazis in Edward Zwick's drama, based on a true story. "An uneasy mix of action and suspense with meaningful themes, of emotion and adrenaline," opined James Rocchi. "You sincerely hope it sends people to the truth even as it fails as fiction." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and a "legendary" Collector's Corner!

Filmmaker Richard Linklater's feature films have often debuted in prestigious film festivals and venues, from Sundance to Cannes, but he's trying something different with his first documentary feature. After a splashy premiere in Austin last week, Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach will be released ... not in theaters, but on a cable sports channel. You can watch the film on ESPN2 or ESPN2 HD at 10:00 pm EST on Sunday, June 15.

Inning by Inning is a profile of Augie Garrido, considered one of the "winningest" coaches in NCAA baseball. The film focuses on the 69-year-old coach's most recent seasons with the Texas Longhorns team. Linklater and his crew were given access to the team from 2005-2006, and it's fascinating to see personal, almost intimate moments when Garrido talks to the college players one-on-one, or as a team. Linklater had originally set out to make a documentary about the Longhorns' back-to-back winning seasons (2004-2005), but said (in a Q&A after the film's press screening) that he became interested in Garrido's coaching techniques and shifted the film's focus accordingly. Interviews with former Texas and Cal State-Fullerton players coached by Garrido, and other sports figures like Darrell Royal and Roger Clemens (Kevin Costner appears briefly too), round out the documentary.

Richard Linklater, one of the indie world's favorite directors of the last couple decades, released two films in 2006, both unusual in some way. A Scanner Darkly used rotoscoping to turn a live-action film into surreal animation, while Fast Food Nation took a nonfiction book and turned it into a fictional story. Fans wondered: What's next on his agenda?

Well, we have an answer! Linklater must like trying new things, because this time it's a documentary -- his first time in that genre except for a short (Live from Shiva's Dance Floor) that he made a few years ago. This one, called Inning by Inning: A Coach's Progress, is a profile of University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido, the winningest coach in NCAA history.

Garrido granted Linklater unprecedented access to practices, games, and team meetings, not to mention access to himself and the players. And Garrido is no stranger to the ways of filmmaking, either. The 68-year-old coach has been friends with Kevin Costner since the days when the actor attended Cal State Fullerton, where Garrido was then coaching (and winning). Costner even recruited Garrido to play a Yankees manager in his film For Love of the Game.

Linklater screened a rough cut of Inning by Inning for Austin Film Society members last Thursday -- a fitting venue, considering he co-founded the organization and is its artistic director. No word yet on when the film will be finished and released, but the subject is a natural fit for Linklater, who loves University of Texas and baseball. If it's good, maybe it can count as an apology for Bad News Bears.