KNUCKLEBALL! (2012)

Elizabeth

When Knuckleball! first came out, I saw R.A. Dickey as a guest on The Daily Show and sort of fell in love with him, in a baseball player sort of way. I thought he was really well-spoken (for an athlete) and was really intrigued by this whole knuckleball thing, which I hadn’t heard of up to that point. This was around post-season baseball time, so I didn’t get to see R.A. Dickey pitch at all, so I was still intrigued/confused by the knuckleball.

Chris and I had been meaning to watch this for a really long time, but then it finally came out on Netflix and between that and being in the mood after the MLB draft, it was hard to pass up seeing this. And it’s really cool. I love a good sports documentary, and I just thought this was great. It goes into the mechanics of the knuckleball, which is a pretty important element to a viewer like me. I’ve since seen R.A. Dickey pitch, so I’ve seen the knuckleball in action, but still didn’t quite understand how it worked. This documentary goes into all the reasons the knuckleball is great and awful; how it can bring a career back from the dead and then abandon a player when he needs it most. I’ve decided I don’t like watching games where the Blue Jays (R.A. Dickey’s team) play the Orioles (Chris’ team and my team now) when Dickey pitches, because it just sort of kills me when he does badly, but if he does well . . . it’s against the Orioles and that’s not great, either. Caring about sports feels like a full-time job sometimes.

But Knuckleball! is also great if you’re not a huge baseball fan, because it explains what needs to be explained and tells compelling stories about Tim Wakefield (a since-retired knuckleball pitcher) and R.A. Dickey’s careers. See this for suuuure.

Christopher

It took us forever to watch this movie. It wasn’t ’til Netflix put it on Instant Watch did we finally sit down to see it. I’m glad we did ’cause this documentary was great. For some reason, growing up, I don’t think I ever understood that Tim Wakefield was a knuckleball pitcher or that there were even pitchers that only threw knuckleballs. I really feel that this is a movie that everyone should see, even people that don’t feel that into baseball. It really helps you understand the struggles of professional sports. Though this is about a specific kind of people, it walks you through the struggles of sports. No matter how good you are there will be times you struggle and sometimes it takes completely reinventing yourself to stay in the game! Please watch this.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)

Christopher

This is a film my parents rented for my sister and I when we were younger and left us with the babysitter. I believe I enjoyed it but never really thought of it beyond a nice comedy. As an adult I’ve watched this movie multiple times and it is pure genius. IT’S SO GOOD!! And I have to say John Candy is a genius. I think what’s so nice about this movie is how clean and simple the jokes are but it’s so funny. It’s also insanely tragic in multiple ways but what are you guys reading this blog right now for? GO WATCH THIS MOVIE RIGHT NOW!! It’s on Netflix for goodness sake!!!

Elizabeth

Even though Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a comedy, and a good one, anytime it comes up or comes to mind I always think first of how sad it is. Because, really, Del Griffith (John Candy) is a sad character. And it’s kindly John Candy, so you don’t want to see him being a sad character. It’s just rough at times. But I guess everyone can sort of identify with parts of his character, which probably makes it sadder.

Since Chris and I recently took a long trip together, I was kind of struck by how similar Chris can be to Del and how similar I can be to Neal Page (Steve Martin). Chris is a very mellow, take-things-as-they-come, happy-go-lucky traveler. I’m a very nervous, easily-irritable traveler. Neither of us are really that much similar to either character, but it’s just funny to see.

I also love seeing and hearing Steve Martin say “fuck.” It just never gets old to me.