It is a great year for American film early on in 2009. Up is Pixar continuing to find ways to be a revelation. I Love You, Man is a very funny movie that resembles a new genre. (And no, I am not going to dub it the label given by faaar too many critics. If you are not sure what I am referring to, then you are quite simply a better person.) The Hurt Locker is intense and important and ugly and beautiful and the best film that I have seen this year.* It is in the humble opinion of this narrator (Look, I just dodged another overly used media-created moniker. If you are not sure what I am referring to this time, it rhymes with the classic Arcade game that Costanza is the master of.) that the directors of these films deserve their mid-season accolades.
None of them touch Mark Buehrle. The best five and half minutes you will spend this week is here and shrunk down to 27 pitches. Even that is brilliant and incredibly moving, much like Up's early montage. It truly is the pitcher that acts as director if you compare the hardly new, and oft discussed genre of the baseball game to those found in films like Paul Rudd and Jason Seigel's gooch-ma-goochfest. (I'm not becoming one of them in trying to avoid them am I?) Buehrle provided a masterpiece if looking again at this video only at his pitch placement. Again, we are not even seeing the balls, strikes, and foul tips that lead up to these 27 outs but you can also find incredible performances from the ensemble cast. Some are understated in their brilliance, like Beckham's grab and throw out to start the 6th. Wise's grab to get the first out of the ninth is absolutely legendary, excrutiatingly intense and it ends up kind of ugly. Bigelow's masterpiece on modern war is indeed beautiful, and Ken Harrelson provides some of that with his call of the final out. I was always kind of bugged by how much of a homer he is, but in this case it is perfect. I guess Obama was right when he said that "today everybody is a White Sox fan."
I stress again that I do not always see eye to eye with the newest critics to take the balcony seats. The films I mentioned that they likewise applaud are indeed great, but it is impossible to argue that the pieces are perfect. On July 23rd, 2009 Mark Buehrle was indisputably so. I hear often that baseball is an individual sport disguised as a team sport, and it was in this piece that he was its unflinching auteur.
*- Before everyone starts freaking out and asks why I have not mentioned Sugar, I saw it in 2008 at the VFF. Now that is a film that is as close to perfect as you can get.
- I have to mention this link that WCTSS's most loyal follower, Aaron sent me. It is an anniversary worth celebrating.
- Also gotta mention that I am on twitter now. Stop by twitter.com/wctss if you feel so inclined.
