The Bennett Miller-helmed adaptation of “Moneyball” aside, the best baseball-centric movies in the past couple of years have been coming via ESPN’s superb “30 for 30” series and this year’s “The Battered Bastards of Baseball.” The newest entry into the sub-genre is the Dock Ellis-centric “No No: A Dockumentary,” and its first trailer has arrived online.
Ellis was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early ’70s, a charismatic and controversial figure (at least as far as racist baseball fans were concerned) who would later admit to pitching a “no-no,” baseball speak for a game in which the opposing team is not able to achieve a single hit, while high on LSD. The documentary tells the story of Ellis’ ascent to notoriety as a major league pitcher, and though he passed away in 2008 before the completion of the film, director Jeffrey Radice was able to get a great interview from him as well as interviews from Ellis’ former teammates and friends.
We caught the film at Sundance earlier this year and found it to be delightful, if a little overlong. But the story is terrific, and comes from the wildest eras the sport has ever seen. “No No: A Dockumentary” hits VOD on September 2nd and select theaters on September 5th. Watch the trailer below.