His work most recently took him to Los Angeles, where he was the main writer for NFL Network's flagship show, NFL GameDay Morning. He has also directed content or written for CNN, Village Voice Media (where he served as columnist at Houston Press), New York Daily News, and Modern Luxury Media, where he was editor of Houston's first men's magazine. \u003Cbr/>Passionate about promoting Houston as the next great global city, he also co-hosts and co-produces the weekly CultureMap television and streaming segments on ABC13.\u003C/p>","identifier":"22243373","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMzIyOTk0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc2MzE0MTEwM30.SpKsPMbbo_XonejubDrsNYFeJ1ekjyalB_TuhZ_jDiA/image.jpg?width=210"},"name":"Steven Devadanam","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/u/stevendevadanam"},"dateModified":"2022-01-08T18:48:42Z","datePublished":"2010-03-15T16:23:05Z","description":"The fame game","headline":"Lady Gaga to put pedal to the metal at Toyota Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","height":600,"url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMTczMjk3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0NTUwMzE0NX0.TijlKXhSuG32_EoXKtOZaTtJlSPyCqQurmTPsKfQTcg/image.png?width=210","width":1200},"keywords":["unspecified"],"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/03-15-10-lady-gaga-to-put-pedal-to-the-metal-at-toyota-center","@type":"WebPage"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMTczMjk3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0NTUwMzE0NX0.TijlKXhSuG32_EoXKtOZaTtJlSPyCqQurmTPsKfQTcg/image.png?width=210"},"name":"CultureMap Houston"},"url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/03-15-10-lady-gaga-to-put-pedal-to-the-metal-at-toyota-center"}
Lady Gaga to put pedal to the metal at Toyota Center - CultureMap Houston
The fame game
Lady Gaga to put pedal to the metal at Toyota Center
Attention Lady Gaga's loyal subjects: Mark your calendars for July 25, when the performance artist cum pop diva's Monster Ball tour hits the main stage at Houston's Toyota Center.
Following the failure of a collaboration "Fame Kills" tour with Kanye West, Gaga announced the concept for the Monster Ball tour in October 2009, which was then revamped into a massive arena show for its European launch. Today, the performer has upped the ante once again, announcing an ambitious 31-date summer tour beginning June 28 in Quebec.
Touted by the Grammy winner herself as the world's first ever "pop-electro opera", the show will be rooted in "futuristic stage drama". Expect the usual maximalist wardrobe changes, as well as the addition of a 40-foot animatronic sea monster.
"The design of the show is very, very forward, very, very innovative," says Gaga.
Houston's Gaga devotees will be very, very excited for July's spectacle. Tickets will be sold through Livenation.
Making an inspiring sports movie is not a complicated formula. There are plenty of examples of teams, professional or not, that have overcome the odds to achieve success, either on the field of play or in life in general. While some tweaking is natural to create a little extra drama, usually filmmakers just need to do a decent recreation of real events and the story takes care of itself.
That ability would seem to be beyond the scope of director Ty Roberts and writer Lane Garrison, who have attempted to tell two Fort Worth-centric stories in a row: 2021’s 12 Mighty Orphans and now You Gotta Believe. This one is about the 2002 Westside Little League team that captured the country’s attention by making an improbable run to the Little League World Series, the first time a Fort Worth team had made it that far since 1960.
As the film tells it, the team was one of the worst in the league but was chosen to compete in the postseason tournament for financial reasons. The team was led by coaches Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson) and Jon Kelly (Greg Kinnear), both of which had sons on the team. When Bobby is diagnosed with melanoma, the team dedicates their run to him, and somehow starts playing better than they’ve ever played before.
The story gives off the vibes of past youth-centered baseball movies, especially The Sandlot, which the filmmakers try to capitalize on by casting that film’s Patrick Renna (aka Ham) in a small role. Among the players are a geeky know-it-all, a preening guy who cares more about looking good than playing well, and a star whose life doesn’t always allow him to play for the team. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t have the same charm as similar films and spends much less time letting the players shine than you might think.
Instead, the stories of the coaches are given equal, if not more, attention to anything the players are doing on the field. In the case of Bobby, that’s understandable, especially since his illness served as an inspiration for the team. But the level of detail Roberts and Garrison give to his treatment (and, for some reason, Jon’s unhappiness in his own work) is odd. Even worse, they don’t do an effective job at creating the emotional drama such an experience should generate.
Things don’t get much better when they do turn to the baseball action. The editing of the games/practices is heavy, to the point that it’s unclear if any of the kid actors can actually play or not. But the worst sin is that the filmmakers fail to convey the excitement of what the team was accomplishing. Only the final game of their run has any momentum to it at all, which the filmmakers try to sabotage by inserting a moment that insults the intelligence of any baseball fan.
Wilson (who also starred in 12 Mighty Orphans) and Kinnear remain solid screen presences, making the film watchable even when the story being told is not. Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker play their wives, and they too are interesting to watch. The child actors have varying levels of experience, and although none of them stand out, neither do they take away from the film.
You Gotta Believe should have been a great showcase for Fort Worth (although only certain scenes were actually filmed there) and the team that did the city proud over 20 years ago. Instead, it’s an ineffectual sports movie that doesn’t do them justice, a real shame given the heart that the real story has.
---
You Gotta Believe is now playing in theaters. Check out red-carpet photos from the film's world premiere in Fort Worth here.