HOME

Sports Illustrated :: ESPN :: Variety :: LA Weekly :: Money Players :: Rotten Tomatoes :: Pasadena Weekly
Film Threat :: San Francisco Chronicle :: LA City Beat :: BoxOffice.com :: LA Daily News :: NPR
Movie Habit :: Arroyo Monthly :: Rocky Mountain News :: Mercury News :: Springfield Business Journal
LA Observed :: LA.com :: Hollywood Script Writer :: Film Stew :: Film Critic :: Moving Pictures Magazine
Time Magazine :: Clickers & Flickers :: PopcornReel.com :: Santa Cruz Sentinel :: LA Times 1, 2
Seattle Weekly :: Only A Game :: The Phoenix :: BrianOrndorf.com :: NYC Movie Guru :: Film Jerk.com
eFilmCritc.com :: HollywoodBitchSlap.com :: PollyStaffle.com :: San Antonio Business Journal :: Hartford Courant
Tufts Daily :: Jewish Journal :: Seattle Times :: Seed Magazine :: Austin Chronicle :: San Antonio Express
New York Times :: New York Magazine :: Village Voice :: About.com :: Calgary Herald :: Failure Magazine
Contra Coasta :: Canada.com :: Complex.com :: Metro Active :: DVD Talk


Quantum Hoops
By Paul Birchall
Los Angeles City Beat
November 1, 2007

In addition to boasting students who have helped split the atom, invent the copy machine, and craft a Teflon baseball bat, Cal Tech also fields a Division III basketball team, affectionately dubbed the Beavers. As one might expect from a team made up of student rocket scientists, the Beavers are not known for their brilliant ballsmanship. Indeed, at the time writer-director Richard Greenwald’s quirky documentary was filmed, the Beavers hadn’t won a game since the early 1980s. (They’ve since managed a single win against a ferocious man-eating team from Bard.) Greenwald charts the team’s history, its members ruefully acknowledging that they’re considered a joke, with enemy spectators frequently calling out things like, “If you’re so smart, why can’t you make a simple free throw?” However, unlike most basketball teams on the college level, these kids realize that they’re strictly amateur and that their true destiny lies in a different direction. While basketball teams at other colleges are basically tryouts for the pro ball world, Cal Tech’s Beavers are all mechanical engineers and mathematicians, who are driven totally by their love of the game. Burly team coach Roy Dow approaches his historic losing streak with surprising equanimity, preferring to emphasize qualities of sportsmanship and “heart.” “It would be nice to win, though,” he muses at one point, with just the same tone of voice you’d use in describing your wish to fly to the moon on a talking donkey. The film’s mood is charming and folksy – and the work climaxes with a season finale game that’s a bona fide nail biter.
Click Here For Original Article