Year: 2018
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La Pena máxima is watching ‘Penalty Kick’ (2018)
Mariano, an ardent fan of la Selección, passionately believes that Mexico always wins when he is at the game at Azteca to cheer them on. In a home-and-away series with the USMNT to qualify for the World Cup, Mariano (Adrian Uribe) bets all his savings on Mexico. But on the morning of the deciding home…
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‘The Pass’ (2016) keeps its grip from stage to film
Retaining its stage heritage, The Pass takes place in 3 hotel rooms at 5 year intervals. On the eve of a Champions League game, 2 young footballer teammates share a gay encounter that shapes their subsequent careers. Five years later, Jason (Russell Tovey) is an EPL star going through a divorce and uses a table…
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‘The Workers Cup’ (2017) normalizes Qatar
Now that WC 2018 has finished in Russia (Congratulations to Les Bleus!), the eyes of the world turn to WC 2022 in Qatar. But as happened with Russia, the eyes of football fans are blind to the exploitation and corruption that FIFA has facilitated for these two tournaments. The Workers Cup might open your eyes…
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‘Holy Goalie’ (2017) is one of the best soccer comedies
I am mystified that the Spanish media was mostly critical of Que baje Dios y lo vea (Holy Goalie), faulting it as clichéd and unimaginative, with actors in roles not much different from what they portray on popular TV shows. One writer even complained that there were too many jokes. Does Spain have the best…
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Moral lessons abound in ‘Centre Forward’ (1978)
After the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) qualified for WC 2010, Koryo Studio re-mastered and re-released Centre Forward (중앙공격수) on DVD. It has been shown in several film festivals, including the 2011 edition of the Berlin 11mm International Film Festival. With its black and white production values and moralistic lessons, this 1978 cinematic propaganda…
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‘American Fútbol’ (2018) – what a way to go to a World Cup
American Fútbol is like a playful combination of Anthony Bourdain style and Pelada, sampling the food, absorbing a little culture and history, and playing pickup soccer with fans in 8 countries. In 2014, two young men, Directors Peter Karl and Sam Mathius, set out to cover the fan experience from Mexico to WC 2014 in…
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Immigrants and soccer ‘En el Séptimo Día’ (2017)
En el Séptimo Día is more of an art film with a message from Director Jim McKay. It originated with a script that he drafted in 2001. The story is an intimate portrait of Mexican immigrant life, pulled from his present neighborhood in Brooklyn as well as his experience years ago, when he worked in…
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Notes: Matt Doyle gets Medieval on Juan Carlos Osorio as USMNT coach
This is my transcript from the ExtraTime Radio podcast of Jun-25-2018 where Matt Doyle gave a ballistic and convincing rant on why Juan Carlos Osorio should not be USMNT coach. Go to 1:03:35 in the podcast. I wanted to preserve this brilliant rant for posterity. It reminded me of Ned Beatty’s Oscar-winning speech in the movie…
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‘Setenta y Sete’ (2017): a fine piece of reporting
Setenta y Sete is an ESPN TV documentary on the Nov-2016 plane crash that killed 71 of 77 passengers and staff traveling with the Brazilian Chapecoense team to Medellin, Colombia. The E:60 segment was originally broadcast in Jun-2017, but it was slightly updated and re-broadcast during WC 2018. I assume the update was meant to…
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‘Nossa Chape’ (2018) a view inside the club
Nossa Chape is the Zimbalist Brothers’ film on the greatest sports tragedy of the 21st Century. The documentary covers the crash of the charter flight that carried the Brazilian Chapecoense team to Medellin, Colombia, and the struggle of the club and the survivors to rebuild. The film arrived on the Fox Sports channel in time…
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‘Mario’ (2018) a gay soccer movie with authentic football
Mario is like Shakespeare in Love on a football pitch, where two teammates cannot be together because society pulls them apart. I’ve seen a bunch of gay soccer films, and Mario is the first one that has quite an emphasis on the football.
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‘Soka Afrika’ (2011): well-meaning but misinformed
The problem of human trafficking through football, also known as football trafficking, has been covered in the media for almost 10 years. In Soka Afrika, Suridh Hassan puts together a sensitive portrayal of 2 teenage footballers trying to make a career in Europe in 2009. However, I do not recommend this documentary because it puts…
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Notes: The Problems with Football Agents
The 2011 film Soka Afrika got me wondering, how does a player in Africa find the right agent? How do players avoid scams by fraudulent football agents that will turn them into victims of human trafficking?
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Brave souls unite behind football in ‘Istanbul United’ (2014)
No words can adequately describe the courage and madness in fighting a government’s violence against its people. To understand this, you must watch it unfold. To see how football fans influenced the 2013 Gezi protest in Turkey, watch a few videos as the protests began. And then watch Istanbul United. And then watch Ayaktakimi.
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Notes: The Slavery Side of World Cup Soccer
If you follow soccer at all, you probably agree that FIFA is synonymous with corruption. As we’ve learned since the FIFA Scandal erupted in 2015, much of the income of the so-called “non-profit” went into the pockets and personal bank accounts of its officers and those of the football associations that represent the 209 member…
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So many ways to cheat in ‘Dirty Games’ (2016)
As sports fans, we should all thank Director Benjamin Best for his investigative journalism. We like to think that the games on which we spend so much time, money, and emotion, are equally true to us, the fans and supporters.
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Notes: No Sports Heroes without Fans
American owners of sports teams tend to forget that, Without fans and supporters, there would be no sports heroes.
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‘One Night in Istanbul’ (2014) – a funny film about LFC
Many congratulations to Liverpool FC and their fans for making it back to the Champions League Final in 2018. It makes a great time to enjoy football feature films about Liverpool FC: Reds and Blues, Will, Hillsborough, and now, One Night in Istanbul. There are more I haven’t seen!
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A refugee soccer camp in ‘Beirut Parc’ (2016)
Refugees comprise 20% of the population of Lebanon. If the USA had a similar percentage, the entire populations of New York and California would be refugees. To counter the effects of such chaos on Lebanon, international organizations like the United Nations try to help the children.
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Football as bridge or barrier in ‘End of Summer’ (2017)
End of Summer immerses you in the WC 1998 memories of Director Quan Zhou. Like the protagonist in his film, he was 11 years old, living in a compound in Shaoxing, when the World Cup was first broadcast live in China. Boys of his generation became fans of football and of players like Del Piero.
