Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [83]
These people aren’t one-dimensional stereotypes: they live and breathe, and we see them in their natural element. The film is as much a portrait of a neighborhood and its culture as it is about its leading characters. It dodges typical storytelling formulas and shows how relationships can develop by accident, coincidence, and, in some cases, sheer persistence.
Filmmaker Peter Sollett first explored these concepts in a short subject called Five Feet High and Rising (2000), which won awards at the Cannes, Sundance, and South by Southwest Film Festivals. That inspired the writer-director to expand his material to feature length, with the same young actor in the leading role. Victor Rasuk has worked steadily ever since, in such films as Lords of Dogtown, Bonneville, Stop-Loss, and Che, but I don’t think he’ll ever forget his experience playing Victor Vargas—not once, but twice. He told me that when he started working with Peter Sollett, any time he felt a line or an action wasn’t believable he would speak up, and the director encouraged that kind of interaction. It shows.
Raising Victor Vargas feels intimate and real at every turn. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. There are no movie stars or special effects here, but there is a particular kind of magic in a low-budget film that can win you over so completely.
114. RESURRECTING THE CHAMP
(2007)
Directed by Rod Lurie
Screenplay by Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett
Story by Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett
Source material by J. R. Moehringer
Actors:
SAMUEL L. JACKSON
JOSH HARTNETT
KATHRYN MORRIS
ALAN ALDA
TERI HATCHER
DAVID PAYMER
PETER COYOTE
HARRY J. LENNIX
RACHEL NICHOLS
DAKOTA GOYO
We’ve all become so accustomed to movies following formulaic patterns that when a filmmaker throws us a curve we often don’t know how to respond. Because Resurrecting the Champ is based on a true story it doesn’t conform to Hollywood conventions, and that’s what makes it so interesting. Just when a “typical” studio movie would be building up to a happy ending, this one gets really interesting.
The source material for the film is an article by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist J. H. Moehringer that appeared in the Los Angeles Times magazine. A compelling first-person narrative, it told how the reporter noticed a homeless, boozy black man who hung around a sports stadium in Santa Ana, California, attracting the attention of passersby with his colorful chatter. Moehringer took an interest in the man and his stories and came to discover that he was a long-forgotten prizefight champion named Bob Satterfield. In piecing the story together he hoped to help “The Champ” back on his feet and, at the same time, land himself a great story.
Samuel L. Jackson gives one of his best performances as the aging street person whose pride was washed away years ago. Josh Hartnett is also credible as the ambitious reporter who sees a golden opportunity to propel his career to the next level. (I am deliberately withholding more information about the plot.)
The movie works because it is built on the foundation of reality. It never sacrifices credibility in spinning its tale, but viewers should not confuse it with a documentary. Much of Hartnett’s story (about unresolved issues with his famous father and an awkward separation from his wife and son) is fictional. Screenwriters Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett deftly weave this material into the larger fabric of the piece in a way that balances nicely with the saga of “The Champ.”
Director Rod Lurie is a former journalist and has a good feel for newspaper stories (as he proved again with Nothing But the Truth). His dramatization of Hartnett’s ambition, hubris, and dressing-down at