When independent filmmaker Timothy Vanderberg described the film he sent me for review, “4th and Long,” as a comedy about football fans trying to save their hometown team, I thought to myself, “Self, you can’t stand football… What the heck kind of chance does this film have of getting a fair review?” To make matters worse, I went back to some of the indie films I reviewed while still a baby film critic and, given their – how shall I put it? – inadequacies, another worry popped into my mind. What on earth would I write if I didn’t enjoy the film? It’s one thing to take shots at studio films; putting down an indie film feels like an act on a par with punting puppies. I had visions of writing diplomatic meta-critiques. Surely I’d have to discuss film theory. At the least, I’d have to examine differences in cinematic standards between big-budget Hollywood films and low-budget independent films. The point is: I fretted.
In a case inversely illustrating how optimists never can be pleasantly surprised, however, it turns out that I was pleasantly surprised. More than that, “4th and Long” defanged my skepticism and won me over. A Hail Mary? Nah: It’s all due to good filmmaking. Interviews and eavesdropping cameras, without the obvious and distracting presence of an interviewer or documentarian, create a format that proves yet again how a relative lack of budget can be strength instead of weakness (shades of “The Blair Witch Project,” only with much better results). The editing – the mostly chronological sequence of scenes – implies a narrative, but not so much as to destroy the illusion of reality filming, a reality predicated on a cardinal rule of storytelling: Create winning characters, and everything else will follow. Other technical aspects of filmmaking, such as cinematography, props, locations, etc., are all spot-on.
‘The Office’ on the Gridiron
From solid documentary-style camerawork and the cast’s perfectly tuned non-acting acting, to squirm-inducing and often hilarious “I can’t believe he just said/did that” humour rooted in believable human behaviour, “4th and Long” is, loosely speaking, “The Office” on a gridiron. With characters only cynicism would describe as being loveable “losers,” “4th and Long” presents ordinary people whose obsession with football, manifest through a nostalgic clinging to their town’s high school football team, propels them towards meaningful action. The football is almost incidental, a macguffin that nudges the characters into exposing the stuff – a blend of the pitiable and the admirable – they’re made of. Funny, yes, but with heart too, and oddly touching in its paean to fighting for what you love and believe in.
It’s a shame that the film faces big hurdles in reaching an audience. But Vanderberg tells me that they’ve submitted the film to festivals, after which they’ll make the DVD available via Amazon and Internet-based digital on demand. Given all that, I can only hope that “4th and Long,” a film worth rooting for, will find for itself the audience it deserves.
Entertainment Value: ** (out of two)
Technical Quality: ** (out of two)
Directed by Timothy Vanderberg. Written by Billy Lewis, Keith Minor, Mark Robinson, and Tim Vandenberg. Starring Mark Darby Robinson, Keith Minor, Christopher Blanchard and Paul Knox. 87 minutes. Not rated. http://www.myspace.com/fourthandlong