Movies You Missed the First Time Around: Fantasyland
I was anticipating the recent 30 for 30 documentary, Silly Little Game, about the creation and formation of the first Rotisserie baseball league. However, I was disappointed with the path that the directors Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen took in re-telling the story with cheesy reenactments. However, one quote from founding father Daniel Okrent continued to resonate long after watching the documentary, "There's nothing more interesting than your own Rotisserie team and nothing less interesting than someone else's." It was with these words of wisdom ringing in my ears that I chose to watch another documentary released this past spring about fantasy baseball, Fantasyland.
Synopsis (from Snagfilms):
DSB Review:
The film begins with a brief history of fantasy baseball and the Tout Wars league along with the requisite hand-wringing of all things fantasy by the bastions of the old guard (Mike Francesa, Phil Mushnick, and Murray Chass). We are quickly introduced to Jed Latkin as he prepares for his momentous introduction to the other owners at the draft for the 2008 season. At first we can appreciate his enthusiasm and passion for his team and his desire to not only hold his own against the so-called experts, but to win the league.
However as the movie wears on, we see more and more of Latkin's compulsive actions and we realize he's not very likeable and is tough to root for. This is never more apparent than the perverse joy in watching him take a batting practice home run right off his forehead. Whether it is badgering his team's players with awkward conversations during Spring Training or trying to pull off a trade from the hospital waiting room minutes before his twins are born, Latkin is intriguing and compelling much like the freaks on A&E's Obsessed. And all of us who have played fantasy sports can recognize our own tendencies in his actions, but hopefully we aren't close to becoming another Jed Latkin. By his own admission, expert Ron Shandler is an arrogant elitist but even we can sympathize with his exasperation when Latkin shows up at his front door unannounced after a nearly 8 hour drive from New York City to Roanoke because Shandler hasn't responded to his hundreds of trade requests.
With less than one month to go in the season, Latkin sets off on the road once more to meet up with his players to encourage them for one last push. It is here that we can see the players' previous curiosity and bewilderment turn into uncomfortableness and utter contempt for fantasy owners. When Latkin asks manager Trey Hillman to move Joey Gathright up to second in the batting order to help his fantasy team, the look on Hillman's face is easily my favorite part of the film.
Maybe it's because as Okrent pointed out in Silly Little Game there's nothing less interesting than someone else's fantasy team, I never really cared how Latkin's Jedi Knights team fared on the season. But the documentary is a fascinating portrayal of someone who is so over the top with everything pointed towards winning fantasy. For those interested, the movie can be viewed online for free on Snagfilms or Hulu.
Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy’s Sugar Ball…
Synopsis (from Snagfilms):
Based on the bestselling book by Sam Walker, Fantasyland, directed by Stephen Palgon, traces a single season in the expert baseball league Tout Wars. But this wasn’t any ordinary season. This season an outsider, a fan, a non expert, would compete against the greatest minds in fantasy baseball including the founder of Tout Wars and one of the icons of the industry Ron Shandler. To compete against the experts, Jed Latkin, a financial analyst from New York is willing to do anything and everything in his quest to win Tout Wars. Jed is more than just a fantasy baseball player, he puts the “fanatic” in fantasy.
In order to beat the experts Jed attempts to play fantasy for real and hits the road to meet, motivate and plead with actual Major League Baseball players to perform well for his squad the Jedi Knights. He presents players like Gary Sheffield, Justin Verlander, Carl Crawford, JJ Putz, Ichiro with team jerseys in hopes of inspiring his players to lead the Jedi Knights to the top of the Tout Wars standings.
Fantasyland is NOT a film about statistics but rather a glimpse into the world of fantasy sports and the personalities, characters and stories that make up this billion dollar industry. It is a journey with Jed Latkin,
one of the most wild and crazy, obsessed fantasy sports players you will ever meet.
DSB Review:
The film begins with a brief history of fantasy baseball and the Tout Wars league along with the requisite hand-wringing of all things fantasy by the bastions of the old guard (Mike Francesa, Phil Mushnick, and Murray Chass). We are quickly introduced to Jed Latkin as he prepares for his momentous introduction to the other owners at the draft for the 2008 season. At first we can appreciate his enthusiasm and passion for his team and his desire to not only hold his own against the so-called experts, but to win the league.
However as the movie wears on, we see more and more of Latkin's compulsive actions and we realize he's not very likeable and is tough to root for. This is never more apparent than the perverse joy in watching him take a batting practice home run right off his forehead. Whether it is badgering his team's players with awkward conversations during Spring Training or trying to pull off a trade from the hospital waiting room minutes before his twins are born, Latkin is intriguing and compelling much like the freaks on A&E's Obsessed. And all of us who have played fantasy sports can recognize our own tendencies in his actions, but hopefully we aren't close to becoming another Jed Latkin. By his own admission, expert Ron Shandler is an arrogant elitist but even we can sympathize with his exasperation when Latkin shows up at his front door unannounced after a nearly 8 hour drive from New York City to Roanoke because Shandler hasn't responded to his hundreds of trade requests.
With less than one month to go in the season, Latkin sets off on the road once more to meet up with his players to encourage them for one last push. It is here that we can see the players' previous curiosity and bewilderment turn into uncomfortableness and utter contempt for fantasy owners. When Latkin asks manager Trey Hillman to move Joey Gathright up to second in the batting order to help his fantasy team, the look on Hillman's face is easily my favorite part of the film.
Maybe it's because as Okrent pointed out in Silly Little Game there's nothing less interesting than someone else's fantasy team, I never really cared how Latkin's Jedi Knights team fared on the season. But the documentary is a fascinating portrayal of someone who is so over the top with everything pointed towards winning fantasy. For those interested, the movie can be viewed online for free on Snagfilms or Hulu.
Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy’s Sugar Ball…
Posted by Max Power at 4/26/2010 1:00 PM 
Categories: Movies You Missed
Tags: Tout Wars Ron Shandler Silly Little Game fantasy baseball Jed Latkin
Categories: Movies You Missed
Tags: Tout Wars Ron Shandler Silly Little Game fantasy baseball Jed Latkin
I added it to my netflix queue. Looks interesting.
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or I was about to, but it's not on netflix
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