Agent Palmer

National Champions is an interesting, if not ill-timed, feature movie released in 2021 based on the play of the same name by Adam Mervis. It’s a well written brief that encompasses all of the arguments for and against paying collegiate athletes.

What makes this ill-timed is that the relief valve of the NCAA’s NIL deal was enabled the same year the film came out. In fact, the NIL rules went into effect in January of 2021, while this film was released almost 11 months later in December of that year.

Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi is a very intriguing and thought provoking detailed trip of Belushi’s life by renowned journalist Bob Woodward.

The book wants to be a straight-forward, facts forward retelling of Belushi’s life with the words and experiences of those who were around him at the time. On the surface, that might be exactly what it is, but it is so much more than that.

How proud are you of your home’s impact on film? Are you so proud of your city address that you’d write a book about your city and all the things that were filmed there?

Author Margo Donohue has done just that with her beloved Brooklyn. This isn’t just a list of movies, although it has that, too. It’s a history of film in Brooklyn which is not only rich in industry history, it’s basically the start of it all.

“Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?” isn’t just a small documentary series on Netflix about one ad campaign. This is a nostalgia fest of 90s culture, a deeper look into the Cola Wars, and a showcase of documentary-making about a court case.

In 1995, Pepsi launched their “Pepsi Stuff” campaign. At the end of the launch commercial, it displayed on screen that for 7 million Pepsi points, you could get a Harrier Jet. John Leonard took that seriously, and what happens from there is documented in this series.

I hadn’t thought about AND1 for a long time until I saw the title “Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1.” The start of the documentary establishes its primary function as we hear the AND1 announcer himself Duke Tango narrate:

“This is where it’s at. It’s New York City. Street basketball. This is our culture. This is what we do, B. This is our job. Yo, back in the day, it was like a big block party. The atmosphere, the energy. It was just special. But AND1, they just took it to another level…