Paul Devlin Movies

Filmmaker Paul Devlin follows his brother, Dr. Mark Devlin, and a dedicated team of fearless astrophysicists as they take a spectacular journey into the heart of the Big Bang. There comes a point in everyone's life when they begin to wonder about the origins of the universe, and Dr. Devlin's world-class team turns that heady speculation into a full-time job as they prepare to launch a multi-million-dollar telescope affixed to a NASA high-altitude balloon. When it comes to a sensitive job like this, it's important to ensure that the smallest details have all been accounted for because the misplacement of a single microchip could lead to major disaster. Now, as the team transports their telescope from the Canadian North down to Antarctica, the sacrifices, failures, and triumphs of their remarkable journey are captured on camera for the joy of astrophysics fanatics everywhere. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The phenomenon of the poetry slam originated in Chicago in the 1980s, where young writers would perform their verses in competitive form at bars and coffeehouses before a live audience. Poets would be given three minutes to perform a piece they wrote themselves, and a panel of judges (chosen at random from the audience) would rate the poets and their delivery on a scale of one to ten. As spoken word performance gained a new popularity in the '90s, the poetry slam began to spread nationwide, and soon four-member slam teams from different cities were competing against each other around the U.S. Slam Nation: The Sport of the Spoken Word is a documentary shot at the 1996 National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon, in which groups of young performers from across the country compete with their streetwise, aggressively-performed verses in front of an enthusiastic audience. Director Paul Devlin, who has also directed sports programming for ESPN, focuses on the competitive nature of the performances onstage, and their more contemplative and philosophical sides offstage. One of the featured performers, Saul Williams, also starred in a dramatic feature about the poetry slam movement, Slam. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A blend of comedy, drama and romance, Bull Durham follows the intertwining of three lives brought together by the great American pastime. Crash Davis (Kevin Costner, showcasing his Midwestern charm) is a perennial Minor Leaguer assigned to the Durham Bulls, a hapless team with a long tradition of mediocrity. There he tutors a young, dim-witted pitching prodigy, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) in the ways of baseball, life, and love. Each strikes up a romance with Annie (Susan Sarandon), the team's "mascot" who takes it upon herself to sleep with a new player every season. Each has his/her own conflict: Crash struggles to end his career with some measure of dignity; Nuke struggles to make it to the "big show"; and Annie struggles to find something more than a roll in the hay -- and of course, Crash and Nuke come into conflict over Annie's affections to further complicate matters. The film treats the sport of baseball with a sort of casual reverence, highlighting both the drama and the humor inherent in the game, illustrated by Annie's numerous references to baseball as "her religion." ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi