[ALL-STARS
screens Thursday March 19th at 7:00 pm at Chagrin Cinemas, Friday
March 20th at 5:00 pm, and Saturday March 21st at 2:45 pm at Tower
City Cinemas as part of the 39th Cleveland International Film
Festival.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
With his debut feature as director,
veteran character actor Lance Kinsey (perhaps best known as Proctor
in POLICE ACADEMY 2 through
6) opts to follow in
the mockumentary footsteps of Christopher Guest's WAITING
FOR GUFFMAN, BEST IN
SHOW, and A MIGHTY
WIND . ALL-STARS
may not be reinventing the wheel, but it's a consistently funny film
about a girl's softball team, their often obnoxious parents, and the
put-upon coaches and officials trying to achieve the impossible task
of making everyone happy while still finding a way for the kids to
have a good time.
Kinsey
knows this world well, having coached his daughter's softball team,
so it only makes sense that he casts himself as the coach of 10 year
old girl's team The Hairy Ketchup Bottles. The rest of the adult
characters are brought to life by a first rate cast of character
actors, many of whom, like Kinsey, have roots in improvisational
comedy. The film's bigger names include Fred Willard (a regular in
Guest's films), Illeana Douglas (TO DIE FOR,
GHOST WORLD, “Six
Feet Under”), Angela Kinsey (“The Office”), Mary Lyn Rajskub
(“24”), and Nicole Sullivan (“Mad TV”). Really, though, just
about everyone is the kind of actor who has a ridiculously long list
of TV and film credits so, yes, you probably have seen them in that
one thing.
When
you've got a largely improvisational piece like this, there's always
a risk that the resulting film will be kind of formless and
meandering. Thankfully Kinsey understands that even a mockumentary
needs to be shaped into something that tells a story. ALL-STARS
has a nice flow to it, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
I'm
sure some will call ALL-STARS
derivative of Guest's work, but no one has a monopoly on a genre or
filmmaking technique. What matters to this critic is that the
resulting film delivers both in terms of laughs and genuine insight
into its subject. If you've ever been around a youth sports league in
any capacity, the film should deliver plenty of knowing laughs for
you. Some jokes might even make you feel a bit uncomfortable
depending on how close they hit to home, but you'll laugh
nonetheless. 3 out of 4 stars.
I am a 10U coach, watched this the other night and it hit home, big time. Well done.
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