Did you watch the Trea Turner standing ovation documentary on Netflix? It came out right after the Phillies lost to the Mets in the NLDS, so it was probably the last thing you were interested in.

Well, enough time has passed to perhaps pique your interest and fire up The Turnaround, which actually is more of a short film. I kept putting it off because I couldn’t find the time, having no clue that it only runs about 25 minutes. It’s less of a traditional documentary and closer to an ESPN 30 for 30 on the filmmaking spectrum.

That being said, I’ll give you some generic observations here without trying to spoil it:

  • Trea Turner actually is not interviewed in the film. It’s more of a personal story about Jon McCann, The Philly Captain, and his mental health journey.
  • The movie is worth it just for Captain’s accent alone. Early in the film, you hear him singing High Hopes in the shower with a thick Bridesburg drawl, then he laments some dickhead who can’t drive their car properly down the street. Honestly, if they just followed Captain around for a day, without a single mention of baseball, it would have been a great film.
  • The shots of Bridesburg and the River Wards are fantastic. They really captured that part of the city in super-accurate form. Think of Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia, but without the terrible music and singing.
  • Most of these films include 94 WIP hosts in pseudo-narration, which is a sports documentary crutch, and this one is no different. But I did appreciate them mixing it up a little bit. Instead of the main drive time hosts, you’ll hear James Seltzer, Joe Giglio, and even Tyrone Johnson, a rare foray to the 97.5 side of the sports talk radio spectrum.
  • Getting to know Captain and his struggle was compelling. It connects him to Turner in the sense of “this player and this fan are going through the same thing.” That parallel is the central theme, and helps explain the genesis of the ovation, which swaps out gloomy Negadelphia to a new type of Posidelphia.
  • The film does touch on the history of Philadelphia sports fandom to give you an understanding of why the ovation was a big deal. I just felt like something was missing there, perhaps interviews with key individuals in the scene to explain why the standing O was unprecedented at the time.

Takeaway: the film was pretty good. I’d give it a 7.4 out of 10 and recommend that you watch it. My main disappointment was that it ended right when I felt like it was getting good. Even if they added 15 minutes, or made it 60 total, they would have been able to flesh it out a little bit more. I felt like I wanted more when it ended, but it was worth the time. It also needed to feature this video: