Happy Friday!! It’s State Fair Day for me today and I’m going early to avoid the blistering heat! I know that Summer is fleeting in Minnesota but given how hot it’s been, I’m actually looking forward to Fall, ahah. That includes Fall movies, and these two are arriving in mid-September and October respectively.

The Saint of Second Chances (documentary)

Mike Veeck, son of legendary Major League Baseball owner Bill Veeck, blows up his father’s career and then spends the next few decades learning the value of a second chance.

I actually got a chance to see this wonderful documentary a couple of weeks ago, thanks to a gracious invite from one of its executive producers, Fran Zeuli. I’ve known Fran through my involvement with Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) and have enjoyed discussing movies with him a number of times. Now, I’m not a baseball fan, but the story of Mike Veeck is really not about the sport, it’s an uplifting story of second chances and redemption that anyone can relate to and be inspired by.

Mike Veeck is well known in Minnesota as one of the owners of The St. Paul Saints Minor League Baseball team, along with movie star Bill Murray and Marv Goldklang. It’s serendipitous that I just attended a Saints game for the first time ever just a couple of weeks before the screening!

Directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol), narrated by Jeff Daniels, and featuring Charlie Day as a younger Veeck, The Saint of Second Chances is wildly unexpected, full of heart, and keeps you laughing through a comeback story unlike any other.

I enjoyed this documentary immensely and was deeply moved to tears watching Mike’s close relationship with his daughter Rebecca. It’s a delight to have the filmmakers as well as Mike Veeck himself and his son Night Train (yep that’s his real name!) do a Q&A afterward, moderated by Fran (pictured far left next to Mike Veeck).

I asked Fran about his experience working on this film and this is what he had to say:

It was such a pleasure to work on this film! The fun, the kindness, and the emotion you see on screen is exactly how everyone involved interacted. From the Veeck family, Mike, Lib, and Train to the directors, Jeff and Morgan, to the entire crew, as well as the folks at Netflix and MLB. . . we truly loved working on this together! We all caught that Veeck family love, and in the end I think we built a beautiful little film!

Everyone involved in the film carried the beautiful Veeck family spirit of laughter and love into the production. . . and I think it shows in every frame of the doc. A true labor of love!

The Saint of Second Chances will be released on Netflix on September 19.

---

FOE (2023)

Henrietta and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal.

Boy, Paul Mescal is everywhere, isn’t he? I’ve seen him in a couple of things so far, his Oscar-nominated role in Aftersun and Carmen (the musical drama by Benjamin Millepied) and while I think he’s a good actor, I don’t know if he’s THAT good that I’m clamoring to see him in practically every. single. movie! In any case, I do love Saoirse Ronan (hey I can even spell her name correctly without looking it up!), It’s interesting to see two Oscar-nominated Irish actors playing an American couple in this sci-fi drama by Garth Davis. The last movie by Davis I saw was the excellent Oscar-nominated LION and this one sure looks promising.

I like the slow-burn but tense vibe of this dystopian sci-fi, based on Iain Reid of the same name. Reid co-wrote the script with Davis which has a Black Mirror vibe to it. The movie is set in a not-so-distant future in 2065, where the couple’s serene existence on a rural farm is interrupted by a proposal from a stranger named Terrance (Aaron Pierre) for Junior to pilot a space program. The twist is that a robot version of her husband will keep Hen company while he’s away, which is extremely unsettling in and of itself, Of course, things won’t go so well the longer Hen is left with Junior’s clone.

The idea of machines replacing humans captures the AI zeitgeist, but like a lot of great science fiction, the story is a reminder of what it means to be human. Davis confirms that in this Vanity Fair article, “There’s something that a lot of people can relate to in their own relationships, in their lives…” 

The book has been described as ‘… a taut, psychological mind-bender’ by Good Reads, I’m hopeful the film will do it justice.

FOE will be released in theaters on October 6.

---

What do you think of these trailers?

///