Most Valuable Players

"Most Valuable Players" is a really fun and entertaining documentary that doesn't feel all that much like a documentary. It feels much more like a fiction film. While most documentaries today are filled with tragedy and war and sadness, MVP offers the opposite. It's filled with music, energy, hope, inspiration and happiness.

Yes, documentaries about Iraq remain vital and important but MVP reminds us of the American way of life and value system that our soldiers in Iraq fight to preserve.

The story involves three Pennsylvania high schools that prepare for the Freddy Awards, the local high school version of Broadway's Tony Awards. The film talks about the importance of sports and the Freddy Awards feels like a sporting event itself. Sure enough, I found myself rooting for my favorites in the end. I'm not a fan of musicals, and the film holds off most of the numbers until the big show in the end. By this point, I was ready to watch the kids perform and forgot about my musical theater prejudices. I think everyone can relate to kids wanting recognition and trying to succeed. Even though not everyone wins, you feel like they're all winners.

It's all good-natured fun with some really good performances by the talented students. But when something unexpected happens, a sobering reality enters the picture. Thankfully, the film's director balances the tone perfectly.

Standout moments include the kids learning which students & schools have been nominated, and the Freddy Awards themselves. And every moment spent with the gossipy Katie and Ali is a good one.

It's true that some like their documentaries served up much darker and heavier and might not take to the joyful tone here, but MVP offers up a slice of American life and is an emotionally uplifting film that has you tearing up and laughing out loud almost at the same time.

MVP is a wonderful gem and well worth seeking out.

I so thoroughly enjoyed "Most Valuable Players" that I hope I can do it justice in my review. I had already read reviews and knew it was a "feel good" movie and that it was about performing arts and musical theater set in Pennsylvania. I am not one that usually seeks out a documentary, I prefer stories with a script as I generally find those to be more engaging. I can throw that mentality out the window after seeing this film. There wasn't a moment in which you weren't completely engaged in it, waiting to see what would happen next. I honestly feel that anyone would love it, not only those who are fans of theater or musicals. Everyone could find a reason (or two of three) to fall in love with it, it just makes you feel good about people and the extraordinary things they can accomplish. The people in this film are real, not actors, and are as unique, funny and exceptional as any A-list celebrity I have ever paid to see in a film. I will be very shocked and disappointed if this film doesn't get distributed nationally. It's just THAT good!

Most Valuable Players is one of the most joyful documentaries I have ever seen. Without a doubt, there were some amazing docs at this year's Docuweek (LA), but it was MVP that really stood out for me. Although Docuweek is not by their own admission a film festival and no awards are given, in my opinion this film takes top prize.

The film opens accessing support for the arts in sports crazy Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. And it doesn't look good. A newspaper editor states that more column inches are devoted to sports than any thing else in his newspaper, and millions are spent to maintain sports facilities, with little to nothing being spent on the arts. But as we learn from this entertaining doc, high school theater is also a team sport.

The film follows three high schools: Freedom, Emmaus and Parkland, and their talented students leading up to the Super Bowl of local musical theater, the Freddy Awards. The brainchild of State Theater CEO Shelly Brown, the annual Freddy's bring together 27 area high schools, as they compete for Tony like honors. All of which, including the nominations, is broadcast live on TV and streamed on the Internet to huge audiences.

Freedom High soccer standout and drama geek, John Andreadis, illustrates that there is no conflict between sports and the arts, when adults step aside and let the kids find their way. His parents are supremely understanding and supportive once they realize that the two disciplines are compatible. His drama teacher Jennifer Wesco makes sure that every one of her drama students understands that they do theater for themselves first and foremost, not for trophies and accolades. Parkland High director, Mark Stutz and Emmaus director Jill Kuebler are wonderfully honest and open cheerleaders for their students, as their two schools battle it out at the Freddy's, each with 16 nominations for their competing Les Mis productions.

It's the kids that profoundly demonstrate that their love for theater transcends all when they join together at what is truly their theater all-star game, The Freddy's.

Director Matthew D. Kallis and his writer Christopher Lockhart have made a doc that really scores. For many of these students the Freddy's will be the pinnacle of their theater arts careers, but it's the high school programs that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

It's very unusual to find a film, dramatic or documentary, that's about good, about positive, that's about happy. "Most Valuable Players" is one of those few. Too up for some, perhaps. But not for the kids in Easton, win or lose, whose world and options are opened by the challenges of sharing their character and music with others. The chance of winning an award, presented in front of a live TV audience, teaches lessons that will enhance and strengthen their lives forever. Most won't go on to careers in the performing arts but all will profit from the choreography, teamwork and dedication these high school efforts demand. This film captures part of the enthusiasm of this learning experience, this lesson, and should help us all learn that good things can come from opening up to the world with which we all must deal.

American culture likes to find niches to exploit, to blow up bigger than life to sap all the drama out of until moving on to whatever's next when the life has been bled out of it. Away from this sort of tabloid madness are the "little things" that encapsulate what make our culture great to begin with.

Writer/Producer Chris Lockhart came across the Freddy Awards when surfing YouTube at work, an awards program for high school musicals in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Most Valuable Players follows three high schools' musical productions, with extensive interviews with the casts, directors, families, and people who mount the Freddys themselves. The audience is granted a view from the inside, and very quickly are invested in all of it, the kids, the teachers, the promoters, and maybe especially in the communal feeling of small-town school theatre programs.

While the set-up is, on the surface, about the competition between schools and casts to reach and hopefully win the Freddy Awards, Most Valuable Players resonates on much deeper levels. Here are the kids who weren't necessarily blessed with sports abilities, who find a community amongst themselves, who show us the best they have to offer, and essentially the best we as a society have to offer as well.

This is as compelling a film as you will see. You will find yourself completely invested in the kids, and although the competition is the framework here, it's the celebration of all of them that is so amazing. This is a microcosm of the coming generation, full of hope and talent, reminding us of the fresh naive kids within ourselves.

Most Valuable Players reminds us of how engaging the human experience can be, taking us to a place nothing matters but coming together to be the best we can be. That sounds cliché perhaps, but the very simple things can feel that way- it doesn't make them any less important, and this does justice to all of these primal, essential experiences like few films you'll ever be lucky enough to discover.