rooprect For the first half hour I hated this. I thought it was a total dud, an esoteric Woody-Allen-ish stream of consciousness designed for hip NYC urbanites who exist in a world of $10-a-cup coffeehouses. I almost shut it off, but I stuck with it because it was a rainy day and the only other thing on TV was "Nacho Libre".I think it was the powerful scene with Harris Yulin (a great, underrated actor whose face appeared on practically every TV series in the 70s) portraying an over-the-hill stage actor with a 'parasite' in his brain. That scene snapped me to attention, and suddenly the entire movie began to fall into place. At about the same time, the plot shifts gears from neurotic Woody Allen to a suddenly darker, menacing and suspenseful tone. The story, the themes, the words & acting slowly gain momentum, paralleling the tense final innings of the World Series Game 6 which is shown concurrently with the action on screen.Indeed, I realized that this film is much like a baseball game with it's slow & usually uneventful start, slowly changing to a tense, passionate, heart-stopping experience as we go into extra innings. It reminded me a lot of the excellent Oliver Stone film "Talk Radio" with its minimal setting yet its power to bring our blood to a feverish high. By the time it was over, I realized that this innocuous little flick really packs a punch, in story, theme and technique.Imagine my astonishment when I learned that this film was done on a budget of 500k. To put that in perspective, consider that the average film has a budget of at least 10x that ("Crash" which won best picture in the same year 2005 had a budget of $6.5 million). But then I realized that the low budget was the reason why this movie was so effective. The budgetary limitations led the director & crew to use creative techniques which are what make this such a great film by any standards. You might miss it upon 1st viewing, but there are some subtle, surreal moments that give the film its unique style. For example, there's a scene in a bar where two characters are talking, and in the background keep an eye out for a NYC hazard team cleaning up an asbestos leak in slow motion. In the commentary, the director mentions that this was done simply because they couldn't afford to rent a bar set in downtown, so they had to shoot elsewhere & superimpose a plate glass window in post production. The slow motion background was an afterthought but a brilliant one which emphasizes the theme of asynchronicity & disconnection we see throughout. There are many such examples, but I'll leave them to you to discover.This film was an extremely satisfying experience for me. If you like films that are artistic, entertaining & challenging at the same time, you should definitely check this out. Similar movies are "Talk Radio", "Buffalo 66", "Adaptation", and the Japanese film "Shiki Jitsu", all worth watching.

mattressman_pdl Taken into account their extremely low budget and tight filming schedule, Game 6 is quite an achievement. It is a zany, delightful little slice of life film set around the prolific World Series '89 in which the much maligned Red Sox struggle to end their curse.Michael Keaton is a welcome return as Nicky Rogan, a successful writer whose play is debuting the same night as Game 6. But, throughout the day, Nicky struggles with his mistress, his rebellious teen daughter, his apparently put-upon wife, his old friend, his ailing father, and an eccentric critic famous for sinking plays and ending writer's careers. Nicky's faith is in the Sox, however, but what happens if and when the Sox fail...seek out this little film, it's worth a viewing. All of the acting is top-notch and, with a film of limited means, the acting is what ultimately saves the day.

sol1218 (There are Spoilers) with everything seemingly coming down on his head Broadway playwright Nicky Regan, Michael Keaton,has found out that he has an added crisis to his already hectic and troubled life. New York Times play reviewer and critic Steven Schwimmer, Robert Downey Jr. Schwimmer's word can make or beak a Broadway play and he's the person that's going to review his that evening!Nicky is also saddled with a failing marriage with his now separated wife Lillian, Catherine O'Hara,due to his affair with,Lillians, gynecologist Joanna Brorne, Bebe Neuwirth. All that is driving his teenage daughter Laurel, Ari Graynor, to become so upset that she's seriously thinking of getting professional help.It just turns out that opening night for Nicky's play at the Music Box coincides with the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, October 25, with Nicky's beloved Boston Red Sox leading three games to two. With the sixth game possibly being the series clincher for Boston. If they win it would be the first World Series title for the luckless Bosox since 1918.Witty and at the same time heart wrenching movie about a person who completely lost his grip on reality and in the end has a mind-snapping experience that almost causes him to commit murder. Even though those in the theater district would gladly give him a ticker tape parade, and the key to the city, if he succeeded.The movie "Game 6" slowly works it way toward the showdown at Shea Stadium between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox that's a do or die game for the Mets. At first just a sidelight with Nicky jumping from cab to cab trying to get everything ready for his big opening night act, or play, he becomes obsessed with the ballgame. It's as if the outcome of the game would make him forget his personal troubles. Which among other headache his leading man in the play Peter Redmond,Harris Yulin, is suffering from memory loss due to a parasite embedded in his brain! That Redmond he picked up in far-off Borneo during location filming of a movie he stared in.Egged on to murder Schwimmer by fellow playwright Elliot Litvak, Griffin Dunne, who's professional and personal life he destroyed, Nicky tries to keep himself from going off the deep end and do in the nasty and abusive Broadway critic. Taking a cab to a sports bar Nicky plans to watch the Met/Red Sox World Series game. The dramatic conclusion of the 6th game just left Nicky in such a state of shock that for a while his brain didn't respond to what his eyes were seeing thinking that it was his Red Sox who won, and won the 1986 World Series not the New York Mets! The New York Mets now on a roll overcame a three run deficit in the next evening in the seventh and final game of the World Series and ended up beating the now stunned and shell-shocked Bosox 8 to 5.With nothing left to live for Nicky gets a gun and goes gunning for Schwimmer at his secret and unknown hideout by the New York docks. When he finally finds him, together with his daughter Laurel, Nicky realizes that him and Schwimmer have a lot more in common with each other then with almost any one else; their fanatical Boston Red Sox fans and both grew up in Boston just blocks away from each other and the Red Sox home court Fenwway Park! Whats more to Nicky's complete surprise Schwimmer did like his play very much and is to give it in his newspaper column one of his rare, as a Boston Red Sox World Series Championship, good reviews.Strange to say the least "Game 6" has so many interesting characters in it, including the dozen or so off-the-wall and zany taxi drivers, that you never get tired watching it. Even when it's over with Nicky now happily back driving a cab, like he did before he became a big time playwright, you just want it to keep going on and feel a bit cheated when the closing credits start rolling down, or is it up, the screen.

george.schmidt GAME 6 (2006) *** Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Bebe Neuwirth, Griffin Dunne, Catherine O'Hara, Harris Yulin, Tom Aldredge, Ari Graynor, Roger Rees, Shalom Harlow, Lillias White. (Dir: Michael Hoffman)"There's no crying in baseball! : Keaton shines in his love of the game turnMichael Keaton is one of my favorite (and largely underrated) actors. He hasn't been making a lot of films in the past few years but whenever he pops up you immediately are focused on his kinetic energy, the arched eyebrows not unlike Nicholson's (side note: I always thought it was divine intervention when they were cast in BATMAN since they had so many mirror image physical ties!) and glib, self-deprecating wit that acts as a shield from his inner demons his characters often try to keep at bay. His latest is no exception.Based on a story by acclaimed author Don DeLillo (who adapted the screenplay), Keaton stars as a New York bred playwright who's latest work is to dawn on the fated October 1986 evening of the World Series where his beloved Boston Red Sox' lifetime curse gets re-enforced by the infamous ball-between first baseman Bill Buckner's legs.But I'm getting ahead of myself.Nicky Rogan (Keaton) is facing many cross-roads: his new play is about to premiere on Broadway but Rogan's dilemma is whether to avoid the possible public crucifixion by the notorious critic Steven Schwimmer (Downey in a wonderfully daffy turn) whose perchance for theatricality (he attends his works in masquerade since he has been virtually vilified by all who know him) sharpening his fangs to sink into his baby or watch the drama unfolding of his aforementioned team in the defining moment of baseball. Along the way he is avoiding his family, namely his wife Lillian (the equally gifted O'Hara) who is requesting a divorce and their teenage daughter Laurel (a great Graynor) whose dabbling into the punk era underscores her dad's rebellious nature in namely a heated affair with Joanna Bourne (a nubile Neuwirth) who is also giving Nicky an ultimatum. To make matters worse he runs into an old colleague, Elliot Litvak (an unkempt and funny Dunne) who is downward spiraling fast after a devastating debacle in the form of his last attempt at a play that was skewered by the hated Schwimmer to the point Litvak can quote chapter and verse of the bilious critique that has him fixated to the extent of dementia. Nicky grows increasingly wearier as the day becomes night and after a short visit with his father ("The Sopranos" ' Aldredge) figures to ditch the premiere after all (especially when his leading man - the always welcome vet Yulin - whose addled brain can't get its grasp on a key line reading) and ducks into a local bar to add insult to injury and watch with melodramatic hubris his beloved Sox get theirs.Filmmaker Hoffman does a yeoman-like job in getting fine quality performances from his gifted ensemble and in his star, Keaton gets a few juicy yet low-key turns as well balancing the tension that is leading to a possible fall-out. Smartly shot on location in Manhattan the city acts as a character as it normally does providing just enough backdrop to its proceedings at hand.DeLillo has a fine gift for his literations and the parallel of Nicky's play - a quasi-autobiography about his relationship with his working class dad - with Nicky's family life shows a man, flawed, yet genuinely wanting to make things work. The same can be said of this little gem of a film.