Movie Review: THE LONG GAME

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN

Posted: April 12th, 2024 / 01:04 AM

THE LONG GAME movie poster | ©2024 Bonniedale/Mucho Mas Media

Rating: PG
Stars: Jay Hernandez, Cheech Marin, Dennis Quaid, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nuñez, Paulina Chavez, Gregory Diaz IV, Christian Gallegos, Miguel Angel Garcia, José Julián, Gillian Vigman, Richard Robichaux, Jimmy Gonzales, Michael Southworth
Writers: Paco Farias & Jennifer C. Stetson and Julio Quintana, based on the novel MUSTANG MIRACLE by Humberto G. Garcia
Director: Julio Quintana
Distributor: Bonniedale/Mucho Mas Media
Release Date: April 12, 2024

An opening title informs us that THE LONG GAME is “based on a true story.” Since the credits tell us that this basis is a novel, MUSTANG MIRACLE by Humberto G. Garcia, rather than a nonfiction book, it’s left to us to guess which details are true.

This much can be ascertained by online research. In 1956 Del Rio, Texas, five Mexican-American students at the town’s San Felipe High School came together as the Mustangs golf team.

When we meet JB (Jay Hernandez) in THE LONG GAME, he is still suffering flashbacks from his WWII combat days as a U.S. Marine. Married to loving Lucy (Jaina Lee Ortiz), JB actually likes his job and even likes high school kids.

However, JB’s dearest dream is to join the Del Rio Golf Club as a member, even though the only Latinos on the grounds are caddies, greensmen and waiters. (Black people are nowhere to be seen.)

JB’s war buddy Frank Mitchell (Dennis Quaid), a renowned pro golfer, is happy to be JB’s sponsor. However, JB is told in no uncertain terms that he can never be a member – it might be too upsetting for the other members. He is welcome on the Del Rio course only as Frank’s guest.

JB discovers the golfing talent of Joe Trevino (Julian Works) in an unusual way while Joe is playing off-course with his friends Gene Vasquez (Gregory Diaz IV), Mario Lomas (Christian Gallegos). Felipe Romero (Miguel Angel Garcia), and Lupe Falen (José Julián). All of them are students at San Felipe and caddies at Del Rio. Their golf clubs are those that have been discarded by Del Rio members.

It occurs to JB that mentoring a championship golf team might get him Del Rio membership after all, to say nothing of helping all of these young men improve their golf skills, get to play on better courses, give them goals, and very possibly help them out in the future. He enlists Frank to help him coach.

Directed by Julio Quintana from a screenplay he wrote with Paco Farias & Jennifer C. Stetson, THE LONG GAME plays out pretty much the way we expect sports dramas to do.

One refreshing change is that there’s no internecine squabbling – none of the players become divas, and there don’t seem to be any jealousies or rivalries. The youths are all personable.

Whatever one’s feelings about golf, the game is largely secondary to everything happening around it. There are nuances in attitude. Eccentric groundskeeper Pollo (Cheech Marin) would rather avoid the white gaze entirely but supports the team; Joe’s father Adelio (Jimmy Gonzales) is mortified with embarrassment; Joe’s girlfriend Daniela (Paulina Chavez) looks to her own future with hope.

Hernandez and Works both have conviction and hold the screen with charisma. Quaid uses his good ol’ boy affect with quiet assurance, and the supporting cast is fine.

There’s an intriguing mirroring between JB and Joe, who gets most of the focus within the team. Both have easy confidence in what they know they are good at, and both are wary of the surrounding social situation. It’s just that JB is playing “the long game” of submitting in the present in the expectation of getting ahead later, while Joe tends to stand up to injustice, immediately rather than tactfully.

What does feel a little odd in THE LONG GAME, as a movie made in 2024, is that it appears to be fully on JB’s side, not just as a matter of tactics, but as a matter of course. Even though football and baseball were racially integrated a decade earlier, no one mentions this.

While Joe may protest that the opinion that matters to him most is his own, there is a lot of emphasis placed on winning the respect of the (largely openly racist) golf establishment. Deference is shown to be humiliating, but also often wise. While in the short run, it was definitely the safest move, this may not play well with a lot of contemporary viewers.

THE LONG GAME is engaging as an underdog team saga. It’s also about several long games, of different kinds. We possibly won’t agree with its strategy for winning, but it does provide a lot to think about.

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