I haven't watched that many films about golf. From comedies like Caddyshack (1980) and Happy Gilmore (1996) to dramas like Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) and Seven Days in Utopia (2011), there are plenty in the sports genre, but most have focused on white players, as it's not been the most accessible game to minorities. It's also been a sport that's not been as accessible to blue-collar or more impoverished groups, as the film The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) demonstrated. There are minorities who play the sport. Tiger Woods proved that fact, but, obviously, he was not the first. There has been a history of other minorities involved in the game, including Latinos. Director and co-writer Julio Quintana is adapting the true story told in the book Mustang Miracle (2010) by Humberto G. Garcia, a nonfiction account of a group of groundbreaking Chicanos in golf.
This is Quintana's third feature. His debut was The Vessel (2016), produced by Terrence Malick who mentored Quintana during the making of The Tree of Life (2011) and To the Wonder (2013). Quintana's debut very much feels like Malick in style and substance. He's a Malick acolyte that is utilizing Malick's version of cinema in very effective ways. Quintana is attempting to bend Malick's modus operandi into his own and I feel he's being successful at such.
For example, Quintana opens this film in a similar way to his previous film, Blue Miracle (2021), which is more a feat of editing than anything else. Malick's editing is one of the most outstanding aspects of his filmmaking. Quintana's editing isn't as experimental as Malick but the opening scene embraces it a little with cross-cutting between present and past, blending reality and fantasy, resulting in a sequence that's either memory or dream. It also quickly establishes his protagonist in a powerful way.
Jay Hernandez (Magnum P.I. and Hostel) stars as JB Peña, a former soldier in the U.S. Army who fought in World War II. He lives in Del Rio, Texas, which is about four hours west of Austin, right on the border of Mexico. JB is starting as the new superintendent of San Felipe High School. He also has a passion for golf. He would like to be a member of Del Rio's best country club, which has the best golf course. Unfortunately, it's 1956 and it's an all-white, country club that doesn't allow non-white members.
Julian Works (9-1-1: Lone Star) co-stars as Joe Treviño, a student at San Felipe High. He also has a job at the country club. Even though that place doesn't allow non-white members, it does hire non-white people, specifically Latinos to be caddies or to do grounds-keeping. Joe does both. He and his friends who also work at the club want to play golf, but the racism and bigotry they face prevent them. They're resigned to accept that they'll never get that chance.
However, JB shows them that there might be a way for them to achieve their dream. San Felipe has never had a golf team, so JB decides to create one. Having a school team gives Joe and his friends opportunities to play on golf courses normally shut off to them. The film follows them for a year through their season of playing. If one isn't a fan of golf, you don't have to fret. Quintana doesn't get in the weeds or sand traps about the particulars. Quintana incorporates a lot of moving and engaging cinematography in order to keep the game-play exciting. There's also a quite melodramatic game in the rain in order to make the stereotypically boring sport more interesting.
Of course, golf is just a conduit for exploring themes of racism and what is the best tactic to combat or address it. JB believes in assimilation and this idea of being a model minority. Joe doesn't agree with that position. He thinks assimilation opens them up to ridicule and abuse. Instead of bowing his head and taking it, Joe is more about lashing out. It becomes a debate within minority groups as to how to get ahead in these kinds of racial headwinds. An interesting moment arises, regarding JB's wife, Lucy, played by Jaina Lee Ortiz (Station 19 and Rosewood), which goes to that debate. It's great because it allows Lucy not to be simply the "wife character" in a film like this that can be not as fleshed out.
The film also becomes about a surrogate father relationship that develops between JB and Joe, even though Joe has a father named Adelio, played by Jimmy Gonzalez who was the star of Quintana's previous feature Blue Miracle. Speaking of which, Quintana also imports the other star of Blue Miracle, that of Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow and Far From Heaven). Here, Quaid plays Frank Mitchell, a member of the country club who becomes the assistant coach for JB's golf team. Frank facilitates JB and helps him get a foot in the door of certain places, but it's JB who really becomes the father-figure to Joe and the other boys. Yet, the father-figure for JB arrives in the form of Pollo, played by Cheech Marin who some might recall from one of the most successful golf films, that of Tin Cup (1996) and Marin is great. He's funny, adding levity but also gravitas when needed. Even a small role of the school principal named Guerra, played by Oscar Nuñez (The Office) is great.
Rated PG for language, including racial slurs, rude material and some violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 52 mins.
Available on Netflix.