The Final Season

Based on a true story, David M. Evans' underdog sports drama stars Sean Astin as a rookie coach who takes over the championship baseball team in its last season in the small town of Norway, Iowa. Evans plays the plucky perseverance as a metaphor for the struggle to hold on to rural identity, but its reverence for the ideals of small-town authenticity and heartland values becomes pure sentimentality and the story comes down to every sports movie chestnut since time began: the clutch plays, the redemptive sacrifices, the final game coming down to the last out. The human drama finally grounds out in familiar plays. Powers Boothe, Rachael Leigh Cook and Michael Angarano co-star. Features two commentary tracks (one by director Evans, Astin and producers Carl Borack and Michael Wasserman; the other by producer Tony Wilson and real-life coaches Kent Stock and Jim Van Scoyoc) and two featurettes.