Apparently, Alex Frost has the face of a young man in need of deflowering; Calvin Marshall marks the actor’s second virginal role to play in this year’s AFF lineup (see also The Vicious Kind). As CM‘s titular lead, Frost plays a relentlessly decent guy who wants only to play shortstop for his junior college baseball team.

Too bad Calvin can’t hit to save his life… or throw… or field. He’s a hopeless case, but even his hard-drinking, hard-hearted coach (Zahn, enjoyably grizzled) can’t say no to the kid. The college’s star volleyball player (Michelle Lombardo) also takes falls for his goofy charms – maybe because she’s been conned into thinking she’s dating the big man on campus.

Writer/director Gary Lundgren goes a little too far with Calvin’s delusions of grandeur, or even delusions of adequacy – he’s a smart kid, after all; he knows his E.R.A. – but what Calvin Marshall most ably does is dramatize the pure fervor of a baseball devotee and how hard it is to acknowledge that one is destined for a fan’s life and nothing more.

Calvin Marshall screens Friday, Oct. 23, 9:50pm, at the Paramount. Writer/director Gary Lundgren and actors Diedrich Bader, Alex Frost, Michelle Lombardo, Rosie Thomas, Jeremy Sumpter, Josh Fadem, and Andrew Wilson will be in attendance.

This article appears in October 16 • 2009.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...