ROUNDING FIRST

[Rob Visser]

I finally got to see Rounding First without having read a lot about the film's story before my first viewing, and decided to put up my personal review. As you will find out, I was pleasantly surprised to find many moving aspects that elevated RF way above the average coming-of-age film.

So, many thanks Jim. I am incredibly happy that I was able to purchase the DVD and that wonderful autographed photograph along with it. I hope you'll someday find the means and time to surprise us with another solid piece of cinema!

From time to time, apparently small-scaled films come along that manage to leave a lasting impression that simply was not expected. It is a refreshing fact that some of the best and most rewarding films out there are not coming from Hollywood but from independent sources. Often, the huge efforts that were put into the writing and making of these films find their way to the final viewing experience, and with Rounding First this is most definitely not an exception.

Jim Fleigner is the man who both wrote and directed this wonderful film that everyone who somehow loves cinema will probably enjoy. Some might just find the film sweet and entertaining, while some will find some deeper layers and aspects that carry this coming-of-age film towards the same level that Rob Reiner’s comparable Stand By Me brought to its audience. And regarding the emotional and dramatic aspect, Rounding First has little trouble reaching Reiner’s film, probably causing many tears to roll down the face as a result. While everyone will obviously develop their own thoughts on Rounding First, it is impossible to dismiss the amount of love and work that went into bringing this picture to the screen – be it in theatres, or at home.

Rounding First is basically sharing the coming-of-age story of three 12-year old friends who are having a dramatic – but also fun – adventure, trying to find out the truth behind a situation that has left one of the boys in great emotional pain. Taking place in 1980, the boys head out to find out what is really happening – traveling many miles and becoming involved in some powerful and engaging situations. While the film’s story undeniably is an emotionally powerful (and ultimately even devastating) one, there are also many other aspects that will make the experience highly suitable and recommended for just about everyone. There are laughs, but there will also be tears. Carefully crafted and balanced, Rounding First draws its viewers into a childhood journey that feels exciting, personal, and also very dramatic.

Coming-of-age films would appear flat if their young actors would not be able to display honest and moving performances. Rounding First amazed me with its talented and stunningly performing child actors. Soren Fulton is bringing his emotionally scarred character to life with incredible prowess – making it impossible to remain unaffected by his role in the story. Matthew Borish is also very powerful as Soren’s character’s best friend – showing both anger and incredibly affecting moments. Sam Semenza brings great joy and genuinely funny moments to the film, which are required things with some very dramatic events finding their way to the viewer.

Backing up the film experience is a highly enjoyable and moving score by Czechoslovakian composer Ludek Drizhal, offering wonderful support for the many powerful moments in the film. Sweet and calm piano, harp, strings – brought to life by the Slovack Radio Symphony Orchestra, which was clearly in the right mood to do the job well.

Ultimately, Rounding First is a wonderful and required experience for everyone to enjoy. It is a moving, well-written and ditto crafted coming-of-age film, performed by truly gifted child actors and supporting cast, granted by a sweet and memorable score. It is impossible for me to not recommend this heartfelt film.

Rounding First simply deserves to be experienced by everyone.

Excellent
_________________
Rob Visser
"I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

www.poppedcorn.com : movie reviews and more
www.busicat.net : my personal website - my movie reviews and more

[Jim Fleigner]

Hi Rob,

What can I say? Thanks for the kind words. A thoughtful review indeed.

Would you please submit a review at Amazon on the RF page? Feel free to submit either an abridged version or this one verbatim. Those Amazon reviews are definitely noted by people who might be on the fence in terms of buying a DVD, and I'd love to expand the geographic reach of our Amazon reviews by including the Netherlands.
_________________
Jim Fleigner
"Now doesn't matter when you're twelve"
www.RoundingFirstMovie.com

[Rob Visser]

Sure Jim, it would be my pleasure. I'll be submitting it on the IMDB as well.

update: hrm. It seems I cannot do a review on Amazon since "To write a customer review: you must have used this account to complete a purchase* of an item from Amazon.com." - I completed submitting my review on IMDB though. It should be appearing soon.
_________________
Rob Visser
"I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

www.poppedcorn.com : movie reviews and more
www.busicat.net : my personal website - my movie reviews and more

[Jim Fleigner]

Re: Amazon, that seems unfair. Let me think if there is a work-around for that...
_________________
Jim Fleigner
"Now doesn't matter when you're twelve"
www.RoundingFirstMovie.com

[Rob Visser]

Amazon claims on their website that they're just 'trying to prevent invalid reviews' - which indeed seems unfair. It's again a perfect example of company-greed I think: they want me to buy on their website, and then they'll let me share my view on Rounding First with the Amazon community.

I'm going to see if there's other true cinema websites out there where people can post their reviews.
_________________
Rob Visser
"I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

www.poppedcorn.com : movie reviews and more
www.busicat.net : my personal website - my movie reviews and more

[Rob Visser]

Seeing as I recently made my first-ever Amazon.com purchase, I can now *finally* post my thoughts about Rounding First on their 'customer reviews' section. I shall do so, thus.

I was wondering if Jim had any idea of the film's current rental statistics, seeing as it has now been available for purchase and rental (Netflicks?) for a while. Is it possible for independent directors to gain some good insight in the number of people renting (and thus seeing) their films?
_________________
Rob Visser
"I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

www.poppedcorn.com : movie reviews and more
www.busicat.net : my personal website - my movie reviews and more

[Jim Fleigner]

Hi Rob,

Great to hear from you again and thanks for getting your thoughtful review on Amazon - every sliver of public support helps to rope in the next RF customer.

Re: rentals, unfortunately Netflix has only posted the film as part of their "universe" of films, but they have not added it to their catalogue of rentable films. In other words, they acknowledge that RF is a film, but it is not a film where they own RF copies that people can rent.

If enough people add the RF DVD to their queue, then Netflix will contact me asking to buy some copies that they can then turn around and rent to Netflix subscribers. Alas, that has not yet happened. But as you can see on the Netflix website, that has not stopped a few people who have posted nice reviews of the film anyway!

In contrast, Amazon has indeed become a substantial source of incremental sales for the RF DVD. Since the DVD has been listed, Amazon has accounted for a whopping 47% of all online sales (the remainder coming from the RF website store). So although it costs roughly $40 per month to be listed as an "official" title on Amazon, it has been well worth the money.
_________________
Jim Fleigner
"Now doesn't matter when you're twelve"
www.RoundingFirstMovie.com

[Daniel Chia]

Hey Rob !

Thanks for posting your review of Rounding First at Amazon. It's great to finally see your review there.

As for Netflix and Blockbuster, I urge everyone who lives in USA and who can help, please put Rounding First on your want list, because it will go a long way in helping to get this film out there to the rental market !
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3 Best Friends .... One Remarkable Journey ....
www.roundingfirst.net : The Rounding First Tribute Site

[Rob Visser]

I am definitely recommending the film to my friends in the USA, and I'm pretty sure they'll want to check it out. It's just another a small step, but hopefully it will help in spreading Jim's wonderful film to the public.

Gratulations on the Amazon sales btw - it's good to hear Rounding First is getting some good attention there.
_________________
Rob Visser
"I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me."

www.poppedcorn.com : movie reviews and more
www.busicat.net : my personal website - my movie reviews and more

[Eleah]

Congrats on the amazon sales. Thats fantastic! If its possible I would love it to be at Hollywood Videos since that is the only place to rent videos where I live (just so other people I know will know about the film.... I already own it). Just wondering. Anyway congratulations!
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Eleah

[Jim Fleigner]

Me too, Eleah! Maybe someday in the future we can get the copies in the video rental stores... that would be nice indeed...
_________________
Jim Fleigner
"Now doesn't matter when you're twelve"
www.RoundingFirstMovie.com

[TrevorTodd]

I know I'm late to the party, but I just now saw the movie last week.

First off, I would like to say that this was an amazing movie. I had seen Soren before in a few things, but his portrayal of Joe was spot on in this film. When he felt pain, I felt pain. That's the mark of a great actor, no matter what age.

If Jim is still reading this forum, I have a couple of small criticisms and a few questions.

I could not figure out how to turn on the closed captions on the DVD. Maybe there was none, seeing as how it was an independent film. But there were times when it was tough to understand Matt's accent, seeing as how he is from back East.

And I only wish the movie could have been two hours long. There was so much more that I wanted to know about Tiger's background and early childhood.

As to the Q's:

I'm still unclear as to who actually killed Tiger's older brother. Was it Joe, Joe's older brother, or someone who never appeared onscreen?

What made you choose Laidlaw's version of "Roll With the Changes" over REO's? Not that it's a bad cover version, I actually like it better than the original. I had never heard it before until I saw the film.

All in all, this was such an amazing movie, and is worth multiple viewings. I've never been back East in my life, and now I'm craving a Yocco's hot dog.

[Jim Fleigner]

Thanks for the nice words regarding the film. I usually get an email notifying me when someone posts something here, and I try to answer when I can.

Re: your questions:

We came really close to including closed captioning on the DVD, but at the last minute I had to pull it. It just would have been too much money relative to our meager DVD production budget to include it. It's too bad, especially considering the film's main character has a hearing impediment.

We re-recorded RWTC simply because licensing the original version from Sony Music (who owns the copyright) would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, whereas Laidlaw offered to record it for us for nothing. We still owed some money to Kevin Cronin (REO's lead singer and the writer of the song) for publishing rights, but it was a much more modest amount so it was a no-brainer to do it this way. Don't get me wrong - I would have loved to use the original version, but it just wasn't in the cards.

The backstory was:

1) Tiger's older brother James dropped a firecracker in Joe's stroller when Joe was a baby, immediately damaging his hearing.

2) Furious, Joe's older brother Tommy (who was the same age as James) impulsively finds James and picks a fight with him to protect his baby brother and teach James a lesson. Alas, things get out of hand (we're never told how) and James ends up dead.

3) Tommy gets a multi-year sentence to juvie hall for the felony manslaughter charge.

4) Both sets of parents grundingly agree to not tell their youngest children, who were only babies when it happened and too young to remember any of it.

5) Yet both parents despise one another and don't want Joe and Tiger being friends. But since they decided to keep the events of years earlier a secret, it is hard on them to invent excuses as to why the kids shouldn't be friends.

6) Flash forward years later to the time when Tommy is a young adult and is ready to be reviewed for parole, letters are sent from the court (the mysterious envelopes seen in the film) notifying both sets of parents of the time and place of the hearing, and that takes you to the start of our story...

7) And in case you were wondering, Rascal (the unnamed grubby guy driving the car) is not related to either family. A subset of viewers thought that was who he would turn out to be by the end of the film, but that was a red herring that I deliberately put in there to keep the audience guessing.

Deciding how much to explain vs. how much to leave unsaid is always a dilemma. In retrospect, I would have made the sequence of events just a bit clearer to the audience. But I've always written scripts with the philosophy that I would rather give away too little rather than too much.

If you like the film, you should post a review on IMDB.com and Netflix. We recently became available for rental on Netflix and positive reviews increase the likelihood that the film will be recommended to others. And of course, recommending the film directly to family and friends is always great as well.

And lastly - Yocco's hot dogs rule. Without question, my favorite hot dogs ever.
_________________
Jim Fleigner
"Now doesn't matter when you're twelve"
www.RoundingFirstMovie.com

[Daniel Chia]

Todd, we're glad you found your way here. To me, it's never too late to join the party

Rounding First may not have found its way to the big screen ( one of life's great injustices .... in my own opinion..... ) BUT it sure is gaining new fans through its DVD release, and now that it is available through Netflix, I am sure that many more will discover this true gem of a film.

I think Rounding First is one of those films that will stand the test of time, and I believe generations of film lovers will continue to add it to their own list of personal favourite films.

All of us here on this forum can help by spreading word about this great little film. Jim's suggestion is so great .... if you love the film, talk about it with your friends, post your review on IMDB and Netflix, and on other movie forums if possible...tell people how much this film means to you. Every little effort, no matter how small, will count towards getting this film discovered by more people who love good films.

Thanks Jim, for honouring us with your presence on this forum. Where else can we find a director/writer/filmmaker who would take the time to talk to us about a film, and to give us insights into the film which we would otherwise never be privy to ?

I love how Rounding First affects so many people long after they have seen the film. That is a hallmark of a great film ! It proves that the film has touched us with its story, and that its characters are real to us, and that we have come to care about them and what they go through. Rounding First has done exactly that, and it will always be one of the most meaningful films that I have ever had the pleasure to experience.

Thanks Jim !
_________________
3 Best Friends .... One Remarkable Journey ....
www.roundingfirst.net : The Rounding First Tribute Site

[TrevorTodd]

Jim, thank you very, very much for the backstory. I think what threw me off was that Joe's brother looked different from the very beginning of the movie to when he appeared in the Philly courtroom (his hair was shorter?).

Now that I know what's going on, I will enjoy the film that much more when I re-watch it.

Hopefully, someday, Rounding First can appear on IFC so that everyone (with cable at least) can experience this gem.