Across both blogs we have watched a few Michael Shannon films recently. He is a top actor and always worth watching, so much so that I considered watching all his films as I have previously done for Michael Caine and Michael Fassbender. Could this be a Michael too far? The considered blog was to be called ‘Michael Shannon and on and on’. Ultimately I have decided against it for now, as I don’t have the time to re-watch all 60 odd hours of ‘Boardwalk Empire’, but stay tuned, if Lock-down 2 : The Sequel happens we could be on!
The ‘wolves’ of this film aren’t of the full moon variety, but the name of a high school basketball team. There's probably a metaphor in there too - 'wolves at the door', ' a pack of wolves', you get the idea. We follow the fortunes of their star player, Anthony, who dreams of a scholarship at Cornell University, where Andy out of ‘The Office’ went. His Dad, Michael Shannon, is an English professor at a poorly regarded college who is also struggling with his novel - Don't worry Mike, takes me ages to read one too. His mum is Carla Gugino who works in a clothes shop to make the family’s ends meet, having sacrificed her own ambitions.
The main spanner in the works is that Shannon is a gambler and not a very good one. We see him winning a $500 bet to clear his bar tab but as the stakes begin to rise his luck begins to falter.
Anthony’s team is doing well but his attempts to promote his friends in the starting line up nearly spells disaster. His coach relies on him but is also worried for his job. The Cornell coaches are impressed but does Anthony have the killer instinct?
Having made their way to the State finals the scene is set for Anthony and the Wolves to win the day, but a late injury may scupper his chances - and give his Dad a way out of his $200k gambling hole.
Although the son’s trials were the main focus of the film, I enjoyed the gambling subplot more, and wished the film had spent more time on this, despite Shannon’s uncharacteristic floppy hair. The gambling mentality was well observed with every small win nothing but an incentive to bet some more. It was kept vague as to whether Anthony’s injury, during a one on one game with his Dad, was deliberately inflicted but you could see opportunity knocking in Shannon’s mind as his son was ruled out of the big game. It was good that things in the final were never certain and his grimaces every time the home town team scored a point were fun and excruciating to watch.
The final scenes which saw a cavalcade of bookies and leg breakers show up at the game, a la Fat Tony in ‘The Simpsons’, before a final last gasp bid for glory were ridiculous, funny and exhilarating in equal measure.
Guglio as the long suffering mother and wife was good but I have no idea why she stuck with the hapless gambler. Taylor John Smith did well in the pivotal role as Anthony who had no troubles to seek, with a pregnant girlfriend and would be coaches on every corner. I also liked Chris Bauer, who you’ll know as the brothel manager on ‘The Deuce’, as Shannon’s erstwhile partner in crime.
I have seen similar films to this - ‘The Gambler’ with James Cann has a few obvious similarities for one - but there was enough new and interesting here to keep me engaged right down to the final buzzer.
Best Bit - 26 seconds left - start the uplifting music! ‘W’ Rating 18/23
