Earlier this week the true Texas story THE LONG GAME wowed the premiere audience at the Paramount Theatre for SxSW this week. I was there bright and early to see stars Jay Hernandez and Dennis Quaid in person along with director Julio Quintana.
ABOUT: When JB Peña moves to the small town of Del Rio, TX to take over as the school district’s superintendent, his dreams of joining the prestigious, all-white Del Rio Country Club are immediately squashed. However, soon he meets a group of high schoolers who happen to caddy at the club—they too are prohibited from playing the same course because of the color of their skin. So JB and them band together, at first with the aim of winning tournaments and making it to State, but quickly learn that there’s a lot more to aim for—and a lot more on the line—when a team of Mexican-American teens competes and wins in this exclusive world. Based on “Mustang Miracle” by Humberto G. Garcia.
JASON’S REACTION: It’s great to hear about a small Texas underdog true story and this one is about a group of Spanish kids who are really great at golf but are stuck as just caddys, and our lead JB (Jay Hernandez) sees more potential and sets out to make tournament players out of them. Dennis Quaid, who also produced, is a big name here playing one of the fellow coaches to the team, along with the always reliable Jay Hernandez as our lead JB. The whole movie is very entertaining and uplifting, and THE LONG GAME is also one of the most visually interesting movies I have seen so far at SxSW. Filmmaker Julio Quintana mentioned in his introduction that he worked with Terrence Malick and it absolutely shows with his moving closeups, swinging framing and overall pushing the film grain and exposure for a much more lived in experience of the 1950s look. Though I’m not sure if this will appeal to a wider audience outside of Texas, I was still very impressed by this story and I hope people give it a chance down the road.
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 10-19. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!