Co-Prodcuer Jennifer Miller and Lead Actor/Writer/Director Richey Nash accept the award for Best Dramatic Feature Film at the Manhattan Film Festival
Los Angeles, Calif.— Hitting the Cycle, an independently produced feature film shot entirely on location in Lexington, Ky., was named Best Dramatic Feature Film at the 2012 Manhattan Film Festival in New York City. Hitting the Cycle will next be featured during the Woods Hole Film Festival on the Cape Cod waterfront in Massachusetts.
The fictional story follows Jimmy “Rip” Ripley, a professional baseball player nearing the end of his career, who reluctantly revisits his long-forgotten hometown to face his estranged, dying father. While attempting to reconcile his fractured past with an uncertain future, Rip begins to gain insight into the choices, opportunities and sacrifices that people confront when they outlive the life of their dreams.
Lexington native J. Richey Nash portrays the lead character of Rip in Hitting the Cycle. Now based in Los Angeles, Nash also wrote, produced and co-directed the film (along with Darin Anthony). Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern plays Rip’s father.
Hitting the Cycle screened at the 10-day Manhattan Film Festival in late June, and won the Best Dramatic Feature Film award at a ceremony on July 1st. Hitting the Cycle previously won an award in May at the Tupelo Film Festival in Mississippi.
Nash said, “We are very excited and pleased by the reception the film is receiving on the festival circuit. A lot of people worked very hard to bring this movie to the big screen, so the awards recognition is gratifying for all of us.”
Though many of the film’s stars and primary crew members are Hollywood-based, Nash decided to bring the production to Lexington because of the diversity of available filming locations and the growing number of production and talent resources (Kentuckians comprise two-thirds of the cast and crew). The opening scenes from Hitting the Cycle take place at readily recognizable Lexington venues, most notably the ballpark of the Lexington Legends, the popular local Minor League Baseball team. The remainder of the story unfolds in “Sayreville,” Rip’s fictional hometown. Shooting locations included public parks, private homes, bars, restaurants, a high school, and several University of Kentucky hospital buildings.
“Lexington was the ideal place to shoot this film not only for its beautiful scenery and varied locations, but also for the tremendous support of the local community,” said Nash. “We had such a great experience. I wouldn’t hesitate to come back to Kentucky for another film project.”
Hitting the Cycle will next screen on Friday, August 3rd at the Woods Hole Film Festival. The film will return to Lexington in October for a run at the historic Kentucky Theatre.
Imagine if it were revealed that Scott Pelley or Diane Sawyer had met with Chris Christie last year to implore him to enter the presidential race in order to save the country from political crisis, and had offered the platform of their evening newscast for the announcement. Then imagine the reaction if Brian Williams made a speech decrying extremism in the Republican Party and describing the Right as a threat to the national discourse. For good measure, consider the aftermath if the Romney campaign made back-channel inquiries to Sawyer about running for vice president and Sawyer failed to disclose the offer to her superiors, much less her audience.
Any single one of these scenarios would be explosive and would ignite a gusher of passion about the decline of objectivity in journalism. The specter of national news anchors venturing so blatantly into politics would be cited as toxic proof that their craft had been corrupted.
If you have waded through Douglas Brinkley’s thick, detailed book on Walter Cronkite’s life, you know that each one of these far-fetched sounding examples is borrowed from actual events. The venerable news legend exhorted Robert Kennedy to challenge Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and prodded him to announce his bid on the CBS Evening News. Cronkite publicly assailed the Nixon Administration for seeking to subvert the press specifically and political dissent broadly. On one occasion, in 1972 with George McGovern, and perhaps with an independent candidate in 1980, Cronkite entered discussions about taking a vice presidential slot, and kept the conflict of interest from his public and his bosses.
There is not much condemnation of Cronkite’s line crossing in Brinkley’s account; to the contrary, there is a tone of mourning for how much Cronkite’s stature is missed, and a lot of wide eyed admiration for the role he played as “America’s most trusted man” for a span of about 20 years. If Brinkley is at all discomfited by the times Cronkite crossed over from observer to participant, they are overshadowed by the many occasions when Brinkley applauds Cronkite for shaping the public debate, from Cronkite’s televised takedown of Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam policies, to his overt endorsement of the environmental movement, to his open jousting with Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew (the night Agnew resigned after admitting he took bribes, Cronkite editorialized on air that he and Agnew had been “ideological enemies”).
Big news on the film front: “Hitting the Cycle,” the baseball-themed film, co-produced by The RP’s sister, Jennifer Miller was named Best Dramatic Feature Film last night at the Manhattan Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Jennifer’s high school classmate Richey Nash, and co-stars the legendary Bruce Dern.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Jun 29, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
If you are enjoying all of the anti-Aaron Sorkin backlash upon the premiere of his new HBO series “Newsroom” (I find the show to be pretty good), you’ll love this video compilation of Sorkin’s tendency to use the same lines in different productions, over and over and over again (h/t JTA’s Six Degrees, No Bacon):
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jun 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Movie etiquette.
When your beloved wife rents a movie for you to watch together and says, “I got this movie because the couple reminds me of us” be prepared.
1) Do not criticize the wife’s character
2) Praise the wife’s character
3) Accept that the “similarities” you have with thehusband’s character will be, shall we say, traits you possess that provide “opportunities for improvement.”
4) The “movie” you are about to watch is really more of a “training film.”
5) Tomorrow night is NOT your turn to pick out a movie.
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UPDATE. (Comments)
THE RP: John, you need to be a little more subtle in the description. It is obvious that the movie is Shrek. And I’m Donkey
REBECCA BROWN (Mrs. JYB3): Jonathan, Shrek was a slow learner but once he got the hang of what to do, he had a real knack for making Fiona feel special and loved in the end….also, it is hard to be critical of Fiona after that locked up in a castle as an ogre issue…..another great movie for us!
JOHN Y: I had no idea Shrek was about relationships. I just thought it was a funny movie about Ogres. I need the Cliff Notes.
REBECCA:…As for Fiona’s characterization, I think she used the locked up in a castle card for sympathy too much and also could have made fun of herself more to draw the donkey and Shrek into feeling more comfortable around her right off the bat. Instead, they felt they had to show that they felt sorry for her and it set the next few scenes up for constant tension. I don’t think I have ever given this much thought to a Disney movie…thanks Jonathan!
THE RP: To be honest, Rebecca, I think I fell asleep when I watched Shrek with the girls. I was just making the surface comment that John looks like Shrek, you look like Fiona, and I look like Donkey.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jun 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Facebook will slowly undermine the effectiveness of negative political advertising.
Oh, you think I jest?
Seriously, I believe there’s a connection–and that over time Facebook will slowly erode the shock impact—and therefore the political and electoral impact that political campaigns have relied on for decades by using political attack ads to help defeat opponents.
Really. I do.
Why?
Not because people will be on Facebook instead of watching political ads on TV or because the ads will somehow run on Facebook or that voters will start getting political information on Facebook—none of that. Rather, I think Facebook is facilitating an overdue cultural correction in America. Namely, making us less prudish, secretive and judgmental (of ourselves and others).
Remember Mrs Crabtree from Bewitched? The nosy neighbor always shocked at any behavior she’d spy that wasn’t befitting a model 1950s imaginary TV family? We voters have been a little like that the past 40 years–even though we would hate the think of ourselves as “Nosy Neighbor Voters” (to make up a new voting block moniker, like “Soccer Moms.”)
But I think it’s true. Don’t you–at least to some extent?
A good deal has been written about how Facebook encourages narcissism. Perhaps a little. But not nearly as much as it has fostered more open and honest sharing about how we daily think and act in all too human ways.
I mean, think about it. What would Mrs. Crabtree share about herself on Facebook? A recipe or two?
Facebook. Facilitating, one "like" at a time, the end of an era. What's on your mind, Mrs Crabtree? It's OK, we won't tell the neighbors.
Maybe over time she’d chill out and admit she’s a voyeur and getting help with weekly therapy and medication. For now, though, the Mrs. Crabtrees of the world are simply watching what others write on Facebook and telling others who increasingly couldn’t care less. And although there are all sorts of personal abuses and overshares on Facebook, in the end, Mrs. Crabtree will lose.
And when the minor faults of political candidates are overtaking the airwaves again a few years hence, instead of acting “Shocked. Shocked!” We’ll be more likely to shrug and say, “Yeah, that actually happened to me a couple of years ago. Not a big deal. In fact, I posted on Facebook yesterday about how glad I was to have that behind me.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jun 21, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Now there’s a summer blockbuster!!
On vacation this week I’ve seen 3 movies.
Dictator, That’s My Boy, and Think Like a Man (a topic stretched to nearly 2 hours that could have easily been handled in less than 2 minutes)
There were fresh and hilarious lines in all 3 movies–but probably only enough for one really good movie.
So….I guess what I’m saying is I wish someone had combined the three movies and made one really good movie about a short-sighted, shallow and cadish guy who as a teenager has a son out of wedlock (with his hot high school teacher) and after becoming a dictator in a Middle Eastern country works to resolve that relationship by getting drunk and going to strip joints with his formerly estranged son.
