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Already in production on a new thriller, Clint Eastwood, nearly 80, still impresses with the strength of his filmmaking acumen in the straightforward inspirational drama, “Invictus.” A classically fashioned crowdpleaser, it’s a tale of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman), after his release from decades in South African prisons, hoped to start repairing the racial rift after the history of apartheid by encouraging a white rugby team in its mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Matt Damon plays the Afrikaner captain Mandela must convince. The drama is polite but the implications touching. There’s a stirring film to be made with such material, but it’s a marvel that “Invictus” even got financed and distributed through a major studio. Eastwood still has tricks up his sleeve. The climax, bringing sports-crazed fans of both races together, is a modest joy. South African screenwriter Anthony Peckham based his script on “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation” by John Carlin. With Scott Eastwood, Robert Hobbs, Langley Kirkwood, Bonnie Henna, Grant Roberts, Patrick Holland. The title comes from an 1875 poem by William Ernest Henley, apparently much beloved by conservative essayists. 133m. Anamorphic 2.40 widescreen. (Ray Pride)

Director John Lee Hancock (“The Alamo,” “The Rookie”) writes an uplift drama based on “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” a 2006 book by Michael Lewis about Michael Oher’s rise from the mean streets of Memphis to a five-year, $13.8-million contract with the Baltimore Ravens. Quinton Aaron (“Q” from “Be Kind Rewind”) plays this giant teen as sweet and shutdown. He’s a rescue by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, respectively). This well-off couple brings him home, after seeing him walking along a rainy road one night. “Big Mike” goes to the same private Christian school as their daughter. A one-night stay on the couch leads to legal guardianship, better grades, football glory and courtship by college coaches. “The Blind Side” portrays the Touhys as a personable family, except for the obnoxious son played by Jae Head. Bullock appeals as another plucky can-do gal. “The Blind Side” comes soon after the release of “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire,” another account of an African-American adolescent overcoming heartbreaking obstacles. Oher’s story is measurably lighter. Lewis wrote that Oher scored in the ninetieth percentile for “protective instincts.” Hancock increases this to the ninety-eighth. (Who knew the Memphis school system ranked kids by their instincts?) This may explain his stats as a left tackle, thanks to Leigh Anne coaching him that his team is like his new family. The cringe factor is less than you’d expect, although the gradually more graphic flashbacks to Oher’s childhood trauma are cliched. Hancock congratulates the Touhys for their charity and does not get sacked for it. With Lily Collins, Kathy Bates, Ray McKinnon, Adriane Lenox and eight coaches as themselves. 126m. (Bill Stamets)

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Dipping into a few months in the life of small-town Sidney, Ohio in Fall, “45365″ is a luscious, impressionistic essay film, a dream-like patch of cinema vérité (without narration) that’s more trance than nonfiction lockstep. The film’s gentle intimacy and easy access to the town’s citizens and routines may spring from the fact that producer-director-editor-brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross grew up there. Their eyes, however, offer up near-rapturous visuals: this is one of the most beautiful-looking shot-on-high-definition films to come around in recent memory. If every native son could do their patch of land and the weave of interconnection of friends and neighbors this kind of funny, tender, lyrical justice, we’d have all-American storytelling from sea to shining sea. I’d like to see more movies that are this generous and giving. 93m. (Ray Pride)

“45365″ plays Saturday 8pm at Chicago Filmmakers 5243 North Clark, Second Floor.

“These were six of the most compelling individuals I had ever met,” says first-time filmmaker Kristopher Belman of the five African-American basketball players and their coach that he documented for six years. “I wanted to tell a story about friendship.” Four kids in Akron, Ohio started playing together at age eleven. In high school a fifth joined them. Championships, setbacks and comebacks are tracked in home videos from the early years and later by sports channels. One player, LeBron James, draws special attention driving a $55,000 Hummer and making the cover of Sports Illustrated prior to going pro with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s also an executive producer here. For all his access, Belman never gets at the bonds between the players. Nor is there much attention to their playing style or their coach’s tactics. Also missing is the context of their off-court lives in school, church, or the streets. With Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee, Romeo Travis and Coach Dru Joyce II. 103m. (Bill Stamets)

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“The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon” scribe Peter Morgan provides a no-fuss look at the contentious forty-four-day reign of Brian Clough as manager of the 1974 Leeds United soccer team. Using informative flashbacks, we’re shown that Clough, with the help of partner Peter Taylor, built the lowly Derby County into a contending squad, but how his mountainous ego and overwhelming inferiority complex threaten his career as well as professional, and personal, relationships. He’s earned the job of the country’s top team, but it’s a group of dirty players he loathes and tensions flare. Directed by Tom Hooper (HBO’s “John Adams”), “The Damned United” survives with the endlessly watchable Michael Sheen as Clough and Timothy Spall as Taylor, two men who work as one brain and suffer when separated. Morgan’s script, based on David Peace’s popular nonfiction novel, lightens the mood with weightless humor and an ending as sweet as pie. Easy, breezy cinema. 97m. (Tom Lynch)

“Afterschool special” is usually a putdown, but “Free Style” sports a style that redeems this pre-teen and teen genre effort. Much credit goes to Corbin Bleu (“High School Musical”) for his boy-next-door performance as aspiring motocross pro Cale Bryant. His character touches all bases as a multipurpose role model: he worked two jobs since age 15, delivers pizzas and sells electronics. He impresses the dad of his Mexican-American girlfriend Alex (Sandra Echeverría) enough to earn his restaurant’s sponsorship for the big regional championship. But first Cale tracks down his black dad in Oregon who abandoned his white mom long ago. (Guess who shows up at the big race in the last reel?) Cale is great to his little biracial sister Bailey (Madison Pettis) who’s taunted by racists at school. And he’s great to his motocross pals–except that mean blonde overprivileged competitor with an overpowering dad. William Dear (“Harry and the Hendersons”) directs a screenplay that Jeffery Nicholson and Josh Leibner set in the Pacific Northwest. Clue that “Free Style” was shot in Vancouver: the breakfast cereal on the kitchen table is “Sugar Sweetie O’s” from another shot-in-Vancouver production, Uwe Boll’s “Postal.” With Penelope Ann Miller, Scott Patey, Matt Bellefleur, Tegan Moss and John Shaw. 94m. (Bill Stamets)

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No other competition is quite like a marathon, because no other event in sports puts its elite athletes on the same playing field, on the same day and time, with such a vast and diverse collection of amateurs. Combine this with its intensity and the duration of the preparation, and you have the foundation for naturally rich narrative. “Spirit of the Marathon,” a documentary that chronicles six stories of runners preparing for the 2005 Chicago Marathon, plumbs these advantages, following first-timers, old-timers and the fastest runners in the world, including Deena Kastor fresh off her Bronze Medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Kenyan sensation Daniel Njenga. Director Jon Dunham—a veteran marathoner—manages to cover these simultaneous stories, unfolding across four continents, with a finesse that belies the project’s modest budget, interweaving a history of the marathon and interviews with the sport’s leading figures, letting the natural narrative of triumph and setback tell the story. Read the rest of this entry »

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Robert Siegel, screenwriter of last year’s “The Wrestler,” makes his directorial debut with another story of epic loneliness and solace taken in sports. Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) is an obsessive New York Giants fan; he works as a parking attendant and lives with his mother in the shadows of his successful family-man brother and equally satisfied sister. His late-night phone calls to a New York sports-talk radio station are his only release. One night he and a buddy stumble across one of the Giants’ star players, and in an epic misunderstanding Paul is beaten within an inch of his life. What follows threatens Paul’s dedication to his Giants. Siegel’s oddly-nuanced pseudo-comedy relies on Oswalt’s twisted performance—you both feel sorry for him and are annoyed with him, which causes a level of discomfort that’s not relieved by the unpredictability of the plot. He carries it in a way that many other actors could not, with some help from Kevin Corrigan as his adoring sidekick. Despite an ending that I, as a football fan myself, appreciated, I couldn’t help but feel an unsettling emotional confusion. (Tom Lynch)

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Ellen Page plays bored Texas teenager Bliss Cavedar in Drew Barrymore’s feature directorial debut, “Whip It,” a girl aching to escape the confines of small-town life, a deadend waitress job and an overeager pageant mom who would like nothing more than her daughter to follow in her high-heeled footsteps and a vapid Vaseline-coated smile. On a shopping trip to nearby Austin, Bliss is intrigued by a band of tattooed roller-derby girls dropping off flyers for an upcoming game. After sneaking one into her bag, Bliss and her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) head to the match under the guise of an away football game. At the game Bliss is introduced not only to take-no-prisoners sports for women, but an entire subculture of cute rocker boys, Lone Star-induced mayhem and ironic vintage t-shirts. Talking to one the players after the match, Bliss is invited to a tryout the following week. Despite the other players towering over her diminutive form, Bliss soars through the tryout on Barbie skates, her small stature giving her a speed advantage that secures her place on the team. A double life begins. Lying to her parents about attending an SAT prep class, she takes the bingo bus to Austin for practice with the Hurl Scouts as one of their jammers, now nicknamed “Babe Ruthless.” Wouldn’t you know? She quickly climbs the ranks to become the poster girl of the Austin Derby League. The action scenes are a thrill: the actresses reportedly did their own stunts in some pretty sweet costumes. Even intimidation from rival-team jammer Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) seems to have a positive effect on Bliss, as she learns that honesty and support from the people she loves is more important than winning. Not every coming-of-age story for girls has to end with a tiara on the lead character’s head; a crash helmet does nicely, too. (Julie Gavlak)

In 1961, Syracuse University senior and running back Ernie Davis became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. He died of leukemia two years later at age 23. This routine biopic is based on Robert Gallagher’s 1999 book “Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express.” Neither director Gary Fleder (“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead,” “Impostor”) nor University of Chicago grad Charles Leavitt (“K-PAX,” “Blood Diamond”) appear inspired by their assignment. Jackie Robinson and Jim Brown inspired Davis, who in turn inspired later black athletes. But the black kids bussed to a preview screening of “The Express” sounded uninspired. Rob Brown (“Finding Forrester,” “Stop-Loss”) plays Davis with little inflection. Dennis Quaid plays coach Ben Schwartzwalder with little distinction. As a period piece, “The Express” studiously details the white racism that Davis outran, but it bores as a rote tale of sports uplift. Local location spotters will see some U of C interiors used nicely. With Charles S. Dutton, Aunjanue Ellis, Elizabeth Shivers, Clancy Brown Saul Rubinek, Nelsan Ellis and Nicole Beharie. (Bill Stamets)