‘The Long Game’ Review: Mexican Americans’ Struggle for Acceptance Unfolds on the Golf Course in a Gently Rousing Family-Friendly Drama – Hollywood Reporter

Set in 1956 and ’57, The Lengthy Sport abounds in spectacular classic automobiles, pristine and gleaming and a sign of the tidy form of the film’s narrative. That’s to not say there are not any ups and downs, no setbacks and reversals within the drama that unfolds, however director Julio Quintana (The Vessel) has tailor-made it to reassure, utilizing mild comedian strokes and zingy visuals to discover a real story of sports activities underdogs and their triumph towards bigotry. Jay Hernandez offers the grounded enthusiasm as a highschool administrator with a ardour for golf and a imaginative and prescient of higher issues for Mexican Individuals like him and his college students. Collectively, he and his coltish workforce, dubbed the Mustangs, tackle the country-club set, with Dennis Quaid offering easy old-timer appeal as a key ally and Cheech Marin available as a wiseass Yoda.

Hernandez performs JB Peña, a veteran of World Conflict II who, because the story opens, has simply moved to the border metropolis of Del Rio, Texas, along with his spouse, Lucy (Jaina Lee Ortiz). He’s moving into a brand new job, as college superintendent, however the true draw for JB is the Del Rio Nation Membership — not for its tony facilities or snobby membership however for its excellent course. But even with the advice of JB’s struggle buddy Frank Mitchell, a golf professional performed by Quaid (who labored with Quintana a number of years in the past on Blue Miracle), the membership’s director (Richard Robichaux) tells JB he can play there solely as a visitor. The members, led by a blowhard decide named Choose Milton Cox (Brett Cullen), aren’t able to welcome a Mexican into their midst.

For the 5 Mexican American excessive schoolers on the middle of the story — solely one in all them, the superb Julian Works’ Joe Treviño, is a completely developed character — Del Rio is a city whose white-picket-fence serenity barely hides one thing ugly. And typically it doesn’t trouble attempting to cover it: “No Canines, No Mexicans,” indicators on companies warn. As caddies on the nation membership, Joe, Gene (Gregory Diaz IV), Felipe (Miguel Angel Garcia), Mario (Christian Gallegos) and Lupe (José Julián) deal recurrently with the condescension of imperious cheapskate Cox and his shifty son (Michael Southworth). However on their very own time, they’ve carved out a one-hole course on a patch of public land. Impressed with their dedication, and intrigued by their connection to Del Rio Nation Membership, JB invitations the spirited quintet to kind the San Felipe Excessive College Golf Staff.

Their scrappy chief and greatest participant, Joe, takes some convincing, having internalized the skepticism of his father (Jimmy Gonzales, of Blue Miracle) towards so-called alternatives involving gringos. Countering that cynicism is golf course groundskeeper Pollo (Marin), observing Joe and the others from inside his protecting cage-suit and dishing out bits of knowledge every now and then. Frank balks at first too, rebuffing JB’s request that he function the Mustangs’ assistant coach. However friction, when it arises in The Lengthy Sport, is short-lived and by no means threatening, and shortly everyone seems to be on board, eyes on the Texas State Excessive College Golf Championship. Tourney by tourney, they problem entrenched privilege and prejudice, the boys embracing their newfound function as gamers.

From JB’s wartime flashback within the pre-title sequence to the compelled hilarity involving the central characters and Principal Guerra (Oscar Nuñez, of The Workplace) on the primary day of college, director Quintana struggles at first to discover a tone and strike a stance. However he and his forged by no means lack for vitality and a convincing sense of function, and, heading into the story’s again 9, the film hits its stride.

The screenplay by Quintana, Jennifer C. Stetson and Paco Farias favors effectivity and directness over nuance. The privileged jerks who JB and his workforce encounter are additionally, in fact, sore losers and cheaters. However to its credit score, the movie sidesteps predictable storylines, as when Frank’s ever-present flask merely disappears as he turns into extra invested within the boys’ dream; with out clarification, Quintana lets Quaid’s efficiency communicate for itself. The golf metaphors about life, delivered by JB and Pollo, can’t fairly shake off a way of writerly indulgence, however on the similar time they’ve a simple, common sense precision.

Shot primarily in Colombia, with some Texas places as properly, the function brims with verdant, rolling terrain and picture-book skies. The manufacturing designers, costume designers and DP Alex Quintana (the helmer’s brother) have conspired to wash the proceedings within the vivid summery sheen of soppy greens, an apt sign of hope.

The Lengthy Sport doesn’t recommend that such hope arrives simply. At its core, the film is about grace below strain — not only for JB and the boys however for Lucy, too, as she faces the pettiness of nation membership wives (Mykle McCoslin and Heather Kafka). On the Mustangs’ path towards the state championship, JB units a gown code and insists that the gamers communicate solely English on the course; to “look and act like we belong right here” is, he believes, the important first step towards true acceptance. As perceived outsiders, they should not merely play by the principles however comply with them to a T. The lengthy sport of the title is one in all incremental advances, the unavoidable anger and harm channeled into golf — and typically unleashed, as a result of how lengthy can anybody flip the opposite cheek when confronted with outright hostile stupidity?

Works’ terrific efficiency finds the fireplace and battle within the seemingly confident Joe, who’s caught between the bitterness and managed expectations instilled in him by his father and the ambitions of his girlfriend (Paulina Chávez), who has her sights set on faculty and a profession as a author. Nevertheless insistently celebratory it’s, The Lengthy Sport acknowledges the complexities of the Mustangs’ story. Each shot of the Stars and Stripes pulses with sincerity and with irony. As mirrored within the interaction between the soundtrack’s upbeat interval songs and Hanan Townshend’s pensive rating, the balancing act JB and his workforce have launched into shouldn’t be a simple one, however, it’s the stuff film moments are made from.