The Phenom

The Phenom

2016 "Hopper Gibson throws one hundred miles per hour. Now he needs to stop thinking."
The Phenom
The Phenom

The Phenom

5.2 | 1h28m | en | Drama

Major-league rookie pitcher Hopper Gibson has lost his focus. After choking on the mound, he’s sent down to the minors and prescribed sessions with an unorthodox sports therapist, who pushes him to uncover the origins of his anxiety.

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5.2 | 1h28m | en | Drama | More Info
Released: June. 24,2016 | Released Producted By: Elephant Eye Films , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Major-league rookie pitcher Hopper Gibson has lost his focus. After choking on the mound, he’s sent down to the minors and prescribed sessions with an unorthodox sports therapist, who pushes him to uncover the origins of his anxiety.

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Cast

Johnny Simmons , Ethan Hawke , Paul Giamatti

Director

Michael H. Ward

Producted By

Elephant Eye Films ,

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Reviews

betty dalton Even if you dont like baseball you could still appreciate this picture about an aspiring young baseball talent who has lost his confidence at his game and isnt able to throw winning curve balls anymore. Having already signed a million dollar contract this baseball kid is under tremendous pressure to perform. Enter Paul Giamatti as a mental coach who is appointed to get the kid's winning streak back. Will he succeed or will he fail? I wont tell.The Phenom is in nothing comparable to other sport movies. Baseball is just an excuse to let two people talk on screen with eachother about FEELINGS. Everything in this movie takes its time. As if the movie itself reflects the rut the baseball kid is in. Slow scenes, many pauses. Many widely spun out scenes about relationships. Not at all a sports movie. If you expect a cool,fast movie about a baseball hero, you will be disappointed. If you wanna see how sportheroes mentally can struggle with loosing, then this is the movie for you.It is a movie about a young kids own mindgames: thoughts he throws at himself and keep hurting again and again. Man is one's own worst enemy and this sweet baseball kid is struggling to deal with that. 10 points for realism and originality. Less points for the drama. Âverage of a well deserved 8. This movie about coping with loosing is a winner!I want to dedicate a special paragraph to producer, writer and director Noah Bushel. This young man has achieved something very unique: he has written EVERYONE of his directed movies! Few great directors have achieved that. I urge you to look at his other work too, because of his total control over his own movies. Everytime he produces something it is unique. Very interesting director of whom we certainly will see more surprising movie gems!
zkonedog After watching the trailer for this movie, and being a big fan of baseball in general, I was really, really excited that this could be a winner. It looked like a taut, psychological take on the national pastime. What I found, however, was a movie that was a complete mess from beginning to end.For a basic plot summary, "The Phenom" tells the story of Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons), an enormously talented pitching prospect who is having trouble harnessing his control. As a result, Hopper is sent to world-renowned sports psychologist Dr. Mobley (Paul Giamatti) in hopes of getting himself straightened out. During the course of his visits to Mobley, flashbacks reveal that many of Hop's problems may stem from overbearing father Hopper Sr. (Ethan Hawke).The main problem with "The Phenom" is that it doesn't create any sort of emotional connection between the characters and the viewers. It basically just throws out a number of baseball clichés in place of meaningful character development. Even in the presence of some great actors (Giamatti & Hawk), this script/story just doesn't hold up. Heck, had the film just given me what the trailer showed it would have been at least decent. However, it ends up a muddled mess of clichés, flashbacks, and long dialogue scenes that don't seem to go anywhere or mean anything in the end.Another big issue with the movie? I hate to criticize one single individual for the failure of an entire movie, but I will say this: Simmons (as the lead Hopper) either gave a poor performance or just wan't right for the roll. Never once did I feel caught up in what he was going through, likely because it didn't seem like he himself was too interested, either. I read a comment where this movie was called the "Good Will Hunting" (a film I don't enjoy all that much) of baseball flicks, but even in that effort at least Matt Damon gave a great effort as a mentally tortured youth. Simmons' character shows no such promise here.So, unfortunately, "The Phenom" ended up being one of the poorest movies I've seen in quite some time. Whoever cut the trailer sure knew what they were doing, but other than that nothing goes right. The film needed to either go whole-hog into the baseball clichés, or not use them at all. Instead, the muddled middle is reached which, combined with a dud lead actor performance, sinks the entire project. I can't recommend this one in any way, shape, or form to anyone.
Gordon-11 This film tells the story of a young baseball player in high school, who loses his pitch and hence worries about his potential future as a professional player. He enlists a sports psychologist to help him through the difficult times.I had no idea what the film before watching the film, as the title doesn't give anything away. Honestly, I have no idea what the film is about after watching it either. The beginning looks promising, as the door psychologist talks with the young athlete. Then, it gets downhill and have no clear focus. I don't know whether it wants to talk about the father, the psychologist or what. I get so lost in the half developed plot, where subplots are underdeveloped. And the ending is so abrupt that the story is literally unfinished. I regret having watched this film because I think I wasted my time.
rdimps Too bad I was actually tricked in by watching this. I mean, come on, the cast of characters, the short story plot, and even the cover of the movie which pretty much tells you that this is gonna be a baseball movie. And I love baseball movies because they are feel good movies. The Natural, Moneyball, Major League, Field of Dreams. Only this is not a baseball movie.....at all. Not one game is played. Occasionally you will see the main character throw a few pitches to his coach, or his dad, but that's basically it. You see this amazing rookie pitcher make it to the big leagues, but because of a game in which he goes out of control, (Of course we never get to see this), he winds up talking to a Sports shrink. The movie is frustrating because it goes from flashback to present to flashback. It's mostly a dialogue movie with no plot. I won't go into the movie details. If you like wasting an hour and a half of your time watching a dialogue movie with no point, by all means go see it. But if you watch this because of the reasons why I watched it, don't bother, trust me you will be disappointed.