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‘The Long Game’ Review: Young Latinos Aim to Earn Respect and Victory on the Golf Course in Uplifting Period Drama
Jay Hernandez and Dennis Quaid head the cast of 'The Long Game,' a fact-based indie about the improbable achievements of underdogs in 1950s Texas.
But he and his fine cast infuse even the hokiest moments in “The Long Game” with a disarming sincerity, so that, while there’s never any serious doubt about what will happen when the qualifying series of golf tournaments concludes for the Mustangs, the young underdogs — and their grown-up allies — consistently generate rooting interest on and off the fairway. To that end, it helps that Works’ Joe has scenes where he interacts with an angrily disapproving father (Jimmy Gonzalez), and romances a lovely classmate (a beguiling Paulina Chávez) with literary ambitions. Quaid strikes the perfect balance of twinkly-eyed mischievousness and grizzled seriousness, with a side order of wartime trauma, while Marin skillfully offsets his welcome comic relief as Pollo notes that, if you’re not white, fighting for your country does not guarantee acceptance in a segregated postwar society.
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