Directed by David M. Evans (1993)
by Sandy DeVito

There are some movies that are so innately tied to emotions they become their own distinct memories, as important as any real experience. The Sandlot is a movie I remember watching in my elementary school classrooms on days where it was too hot, there was no air conditioning and we needed the lights dimmed so we wouldn't pass out, and the teachers agreed we were all too sweaty and sleepy to pay attention to a lesson. They'd wheel those big boxy TVs on metal shelves into the room. There was always a cheerful excitement when we realized we were going to watch The Sandlot. For my generation, this movie was a fundamental part of the childhoods of so many of us, boy or girl, even for those of us who didn't know much about baseball. It's about baseball, but it's also about the warm, hazy nostalgia of summer, and the fleeting restlessness of extreme youth and young friendship, both innocent and bittersweet.