‘Facing Nolan’ Review: Portrait of Baseball Great Hits the Sweet Spot for Fans of the Game

variety.com:

Joe Leydon Film CriticBradley Jackson’s “Facing Ryan” tells the story of an agreeable fellow from small-town Texas who married his high school sweetheart, followed his dream of playing major league baseball, pitched for four MLB teams over a 27-year career while operating a cattle ranch during off-season, set records for no-hitters and strikeouts that remain unbroken to this day, held high-profile executive positions with two of his former teams more than a decade after his retirement from the game, and currently resides on the ranch where he and his wife, the loving and supportive life partner he wed back in 1967, are frequently surrounded by their children and grandchildren.If you were to present this scenario at a pitch meeting, you’d likely be shot down for failing to hype your narrative with suspenseful setbacks, intense conflict and a slew of obstacles for your protagonist to overcome.

And if you somehow managed to get your film made anyway, critics would almost surely complain about the many and varied ways credibility was stretched to the breaking point while the hero accomplished one extraordinary feat after another.

But here’s the thing: “Facing Nolan” is a documentary, not a work of fiction. And its lack of manufactured drama is one of the most engaging things about it, especially if you are a baseball fan who has ever marveled at the miracle that was, and is, Nolan Ryan.Indeed, even viewers without a love for the game could be engrossed and entertained by Jackson’s celebratory film.

To be sure, a few some may complain, not without just cause, that sections play more like hagiography than biography, and question whether its subject could really be such an irreproachable Mr.