The Houston Astros — still the only winless team in baseball, if you haven't heard — aren't being laughed at. They're being pitied.
ESPN's Baseball Tonight analyst Tim Kurkjian revealed on a recent show that a scout told him that the Astros' entire infield is made up entirely of "utility players." If you're unfamiliar with baseball jargon, utility players are the guys who come off the bench and play one or two days a week (at most) for decent major league baseball teams. It's hard to argue with the scout either.
Could Geoff Blum start for any other major league team? Heck, Blum might not be start for a number of Triple A squads. Yet, the career .250 hitter has started six of the Astros' eight games.
Blum is not in the lineup for this afternoon's game at St. Louis. But look at the infield starters: Pedro Feliz at first base, Kaz Matsui at second, Jeff Keppinger at shortstop and Chris Johnson at third. There is not a frightening hitter among them (at least not to the opposition). If you think about it, is it really any surprise that the Astros have scored the fewest runs in baseball by a landslide (Houston has put up 14 runs in eight games, the next-lowest-scoring team, Cleveland, has 26 runs).
When Kurkjian, one of the most respected and measured voices in the games, is all but dismissing the Astros' chances of avoiding 90-plus losses in mid April, there's not much counter argument. New manager Brad Mills must be wondering if he'll get his first W before May.
Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films — Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.
Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.
They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.
Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police. How Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.
Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.
It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it winds up being the least interesting part of the story.
Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.
Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
