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Extra Innings
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Suicide, mental illness, sex in coming-of-age drama.
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Extra Innings
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What's the Story?
In EXTRA INNINGS, David is a young teen boy growing up in 1960s Brooklyn with big dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. His conservative and devout Syrian-Jewish parents want him to grow into a religious man and live a more grounded existence, and to stop playing baseball and "stick to your own kind." Meanwhile, David's older brother Morris suffers from mental illness, sitting in his room all day in catatonic silence, while still voraciously reading literature and wanting to be a novelist, and David's older sister Vivian is a free-spirited young woman eager for new experiences in California. Unlike David's parents, Morris and Vivian encourage David to pursue his dream. Things take a tragic turn when David, coming home from his bar mitzvah to change into his baseball uniform, finds Morris dead in his bedroom, emptied bottles of pills and wine next to his head. A few years later, after high school, David finds his first love, but is still tormented by Morris' death, even if it's something his family never discusses, and remains resolute in pursuing his dream. Things come to a head when the coach of a college in Los Angeles offers David the chance to play on his team, but his parents want him to stay in New York and attend a city college. Instead, he moves to California with Vivian, and when another tragedy befalls his family, David's father must find a way to accept David for who he is and to support his dream.
Is It Any Good?
Viewers expecting this to be a slice of '60s Boomer nostalgia replete with Motown, paisley, and all the assorted "Great Society" signposts we expect in movies like these are in for a shock. That shock is doubled for those expecting this to be a baseball version of Rudy or Rocky. While, as the title implies, Extra Innings is centered on baseball and one teen's dreams of becoming a baseball player no matter what his conservative parents have to say, baseball isn't really what's important here. It's more a story of how a 1960s family dealt with mental illness, suicide, and the gap between giving up one's dreams for assured stability or following bliss and pursuing one's perceived purpose in life.
Based on a true story, this is an earnest, low-budget indie drama, and the sincerity of those involved in the project is undeniable. Perhaps that's it's biggest problem. It's like the creators want to tell so many stories and communicate so much, it comes across more as a collection of instances or anecdotes rather than a coherent overarching story. And they're so busy trying to get to the next thing (coming home drunk, coming out to conservative parents, drug use, etc...), many of the conflicts created in these situations feel unresolved and unsatisfying. The movie tries to do too much, slowing it down to these uneven collections of stories.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about coming-of-age movies. How does Extra Innings compare to other movies in which characters grow up and figure out who they want to be in life?
How does the movie address mental illness and how it was treated in the 1960s compared to today?
What message do you think the movie is trying to communicate about suicide and mental illness?
Movie Details
- In theaters: May 5, 2019
- On DVD or streaming: September 22, 2020
- Cast: Alex Walton , Natalie Policano , Mara Kassin
- Director: Albert Dabah
- Studio: Breaking Glass Pictures
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters , Middle School
- Run time: 117 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: June 20, 2023
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