Review of Medora (2013) by Riley M — 13 Nov 2013

Note before reading review: I have lived in Medora, Indiana my entire life, so my overall views may be slightly skewed.

My Review of the Film "Medora".

I had a lot of doubts going into this film about the negative image it could create for the town of Medora. For the most part, the film does not really do this. If anything it focuses more on the individual families of the ball players themselves.

The film is structured so that it introduces most of the ball players individually, giving each of them a couple minutes to detail their family backgrounds and goals in life. The basketball itself is not heavily focused on. Sporadic clips from the ball games are shown throughout, and these scenes tend to make sure to show the disappointment of the players and coaches. Towards the end of the film, the ball team is portrayed as improving. All of these games serve as a lead up to the climax of Medora winning its first game in 3 years. This should have been the emotional height of this film, but instead it comes across as disappointingly dull. The basketball games themselves seem to lack the dramatic tension that the players' personal lives have.

I am not going to argue much about the validity in all the information the film gives about the players. Some of it is mildly exaggerated, but not nearly as bad as the initial trailers for the film suggested. I also feel that a lot of current information was cut out from the film because it could undermine the characters or the "deep" meanings the ball team's success was supposed to have. The film makes no mention of the fact that the coaches of the team are no longer involved there, nor does it mention the circumstances by which the head coach was fired.

As far as the technical standpoint goes, the film is beautifully crafted. There are some very nice shots of the town, although those who live in Medora will know it is not always as empty and desolate as the film suggests. I particularly loved the old footage and photographs of Medora way back in the day. I had not seen many of these, and they provided a nice view of how successful the town once was. One minor quirk with the film I noticed was that there are odd moments with the volume. Sometimes it will be quiet and almost hard to hear, and at other times the volume would spike unexpectedly. I may be the only one experiencing this, but it didn't effect my overall opinion of the film.

Many of the townsfolk, including myself, have been somewhat afraid of the effects such a film could have on the image of our town. For the most part, I feel the film was fairly balanced in pointing out negative and positive aspects of small town life. Many of the issues that are pointed out about small towns in the film aren't directed just at Medora, but at small towns nationwide.

The message of the film is somewhat discomforting; small towns are dying and there is really not much we can do about it. The film seems to hint that Medora probably will not be able to sustain its school system much longer, through budget talks by the school board and by things the townsfolk themselves say. I know this is probably not what most of us want to hear, but there may be some truth in it. My overall complaints with the film to sum up, are these: the narrative drama doesn't seem compelling enough to deserve an entire film devoted to it, the scenes of the students partying were overdone and obviously planned out too much, several of the ball players are left out completely because the focus is almost entirely on Rusty and Dylan, the film does not focus on any of the academic success of students in the school, and lastly that the film itself is so bleak and mostly hopeless. It does present that the players all have bright futures, but the school itself does not seem to (according to the film, I'm not saying that is 100% true). The film itself also tries to come across as inspirational, but it never manages to pull it off.

My Overall Rating: 6.5/10.

Other Notes: I thought Corey Hansen and Dylan McSoley were hilarious in this film. I thought some, like Chaz, were overacting extensively. If you live in Medora, you should see this, but don't set expectations extremely high.