FILM REVIEW: TOP SPIN

Ariel Hsing in Top Spin.

The ways the balls bounce

By John Esther

For millions of fortunate Americans, playing table tennis, AKA ping pong, has been an enduring pastime over the years. Every summer some kid on the block with a table tennis table would open up his or her garage, basement or backyard where kids would meet for some fun competition. Or friends and family would congregate at the table at some recreation center or clubhouse during a winter vacation. Maybe, even both.

For those who loved the game, proficiency at the game could get pretty impressive over the years. A little dedication and practice may go a long way.

However, the difference between recreational play and those striving for Olympic play is a lot longer and harder than the length of a ping pong table or the speed of a smash hit.

Proving the sport can take on a greater level of skill and commitment than the typical America will see in her or his lifetime, Mary T. Son and Sara Newens' documentary, Top Spin, sheds lights on the great game of table tennis through its three highly likable and highly skilled subjects. These intelligent, well adjusted American kids are not just good, they are seeking a seat at the table at the 2012 London Olympics.  

Hailing from the San Jose, California area, Ariel Hsing had already won the national U.S. Women's Table Tennis Championship twice by the age of 16.

Hsing's personal friend yet greatest singles foe on the court (at least in the U.S.) is Lily Zhang from Palo Alto, California. At the age of 12, Zhang became the youngest player to join the U.S. Women's Team.

On the other side of the country, in another middle-upper class American community, is 17-year-old Michael Landers. The resident of Long Island won the U.S. Men's Table Tennis Championship at the age of 15.

Three of the best players in the U.S., these high school students must negotiate their studies, apply and prepare for college, and try to fit in what limited adolescent fun they can afford to experience, around a training session that lasts 4-6 hours a day, six days a week. Sometimes, even more. To make it to the Olympics these kids must train hard. Sacrifices will be made.

At least the kids do not have to go at it alone -- for the most part. Their parents are there to lend their support wherever possible. Hsing's father is her coach while the other two have non-family members train. Hsing and Zhang's parents never seem to miss a match, either, while Landers' parents are  very supportive, yet noticeably absent from the matches (there is a cute metanarrative where Hsing's mother, Xinhua Jiang, cheers on the young man who is playing the tournament of his life without his parents present).

Peppering the trials, tribulations and training of the three athletes is some spectacular table tennis action. Competent table tennis players will soon realize there is a massive difference between local tournament play and national tournament play. At the national level players create spins, slams and chops, forehand and backhand, bounce back and forth, sometimes an excess of 80 mph, across a nine-foot table, with the players standing back up to 15 feet behind the table. This is not beer pong.

Yet, according to Barney Reed, professional table tennis is not even as lucrative as "professional" beer pong. One of the best American table tennis players ever (and its most notorious), Reed meets up with the Top Spin crew during the Olympic tryouts, offering his insights into what it means to play as a professional ping pong player in the U.S.

According to Reed, nobody makes a living at it (although what else he does personally to make a living remains undisclosed), but nobody at his level is in it for the money. A college education is replaced by world travel. He does not regret his decision. (Reed did not make the 2012 Olympics in London.)

Blending the personal with the ping pong, co-director/editor Newens and co-director/producer Son manage to make a film about high school athletes which is neither mawkish or melancholic. Three hard working kids -- on and off the court -- are living out their dreams to the best of his or her ability, opportunity and happenstance. Even if one or more of them does not make the Olympics, we get the feeling they will keep the spins and whims of the future under control.  

Let the minuscule increase in table tennis interest in the U.S. begin.

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FILM REVIEW: THE SPECTACULAR NOW

Sutter (Miles Teller) and  Aimee (Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now.

Some finer drops

By Don Simpson

Despite its ability to break down the social and class barriers between Aimee (Shailene Woodley) and Sutter (Miles Teller), we can only assume that alcohol — or Sutter’s immaturity — will eventually come between them. Something horrible seems to be lingering on their horizon, but there is no way of knowing exactly what it is. I found myself mentally preparing for something horrible to happen, because it just seems like one of those films; the kind that requires a horrible tragedy in order to redeem and/or save its protagonist(s).

For a few moments, director James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now goes the way of The Christmas Story, as Sutter is able to glimpse a future version of himself. If Sutter continues down his current path, there is an extremely high probability that he will end up a lot like the failure of a man who is sitting across the table from him; but even this experience is not enough to shake some sense into Sutter.

It is the incredibly powerful final act that really puts the “wow!” into The Spectacular Now. This is a story that could go a million different ways, but the conclusion abides by the same surprisingly high level of realism that commands the rest of the film.

The Spectacular Now serves as an impressive treatise on teen alcoholism and the social pressures found in high school. Certainly more effective than any of those horrendous alcohol and drug-related videos that they show in school assemblies, The Spectacular Now might actually make teenagers think before taking too many drinks.

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FILM REVIEW: THE WE AND THE I

A scene from The We and the I.

Fame: bully for them, chilly for you

By Don Simpson

School is officially out for the summer as a bunch of high schoolers crowd onto a city bus. With no adult authority figures willing to keep the kids in line, the bus is quickly segregated into two distinct groups: the bullies and the bullied. Out-numbered and unwilling to take a stand against a gang of hood-rat brats, the adults opt to exit the bus — some more gracefully than others — until the bus driver is left with a bunch of unruly teens. The bus devolves into an urban The Lord of the Flies on wheels as the kids jockey for power by using mental and physical torture against each other. The meanest and the crudest claw their way to the top of the pile, leaving a trail of emotionally devastated victims in their wake, but rather than dissolving into a state of total anarchy, kids exit the bus at their respective stops and their diminishing numbers slowly alter the tone of the remaining group. What begins as a pack of feral wolves transforms into more civil pairings, initiating increasingly intimate conversations.

The We and the I is an interesting social experiment in which writer-director Michel Gondry casts a bunch of non-professional actors straight out of a Bronx high school and crams them into this mobile social boiling pot. In theory, Gondry just wants them to be themselves as he clinically observes the pack mentality of teenagers, then tests what happens when the numbers of the pack begins to dwindle and as the bus transports them farther from school and closer to home. In significant numbers, the bullies are invincible; they are both fearless and selfish. As individuals, however, they are totally different people. Some of them might even become nice, albeit still a bit self-centered. Of course there is no denying the presence of the video cameras and modest crew changes their reality. At the very least, these outside forces form a safety net to ensure that the seemingly immoral bullies won’t push things too far. Sure, there may not be any authority figure on screen, but there is no greater authority than the director behind the camera.

Regardless of their subtle personality adjustments, after suffering through their relentless bullying for so long, these characters can never become likable. These are bad people, constantly fighting, teasing and insulting each other; they wallow in this cesspool of hatred and anger, gossiping and gloating, bragging and bullying. The We and the Iseems to just support the theory that our world is going to hell in a hand basket if these morally-deprived youth of today are any reflection of our future. This is the type of film that makes me glad that I do not have any kids because I would not want to subject anyone to the mental torture presented throughout The We and the I. It is worth noting, however, that Gondry remains merely a fly on the wall; placing any moralizing or condescension into the hands of the critics and audience.

 

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