There will be a screening of Matthew Wolfe's documentary The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Little Rock's Riverdale 10 Theater. Tickets are $10 and available at the theater's box office. The film's director and subject will be on hand to answer questions after the screening.
If you follow the Arkansas Razorbacks football program, you likely know all about Mitch Mustain -- or at least you think you do. Even if you have little interest in college football you might be intrigued by this absorbing portrait of an uncommonly complicated young man.
At Springdale High School in 2005 he was considered the No. 1 high school quarterback in the country. He was the first-ever consensus Gatorade, Parade, and USA Today Player of the Year. He was probably the most celebrated high school athlete in the state of Arkansas in the past 30 years or so. And there was unprecedented speculation about where he was going to play college ball. Mustain committed early to the University of Arkansas, but after the offensive coordinator was fired he decided to take another look at his options. Mustain could have gone almost anywhere to play football -- to Notre Dame or the University of Southern California or one of the service academies.
He recommitted and enrolled at UA after his high school coach, Gus Malzahn, was hired as offensive coordinator. While no one really talks about it, it's apparent that Malzahn's hiring was forced upon head coach Houston Nutt and that Malzahn was expected to deliver Mustain and four of his teammates to the program. We can speculate that Nutt resented Malzahn and "his boys" and the up-tempo no-huddle spread offense he had employed at Springdale High. We can speculate that Nutt, blessed with a team that included three future NFL running backs and a remarkable 14 future draft picks, was not happy when circumstances more or less forced his hand and led to his starting Mustain as a freshman. Though Mustain's play was erratic, the Razorbacks won the eight games he started in 2006.
In a book about Springdale's record-setting 2005 season, Mustain was quoted as calling Nutt "a dork." And then, in a late-season game against South Carolina, Mustain threw an interception on his very first attempt. And Casey Dick came in and finished the season as a starter. There were meetings with parents, hateful emails, message board recriminations. When the dust settled, what might have been the best collection of athletes ever gathered at the university finished their season with a couple of disappointing losses. Mustain left. Malzahn did too.
The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain also covers Mustain's subsequent transfer to USC (where he failed to crack the starting lineup) and his post-collegiate life, which has included a stint selling cars as well as a flirtation with baseball. Mustain hasn't given up on his dream of playing football in the National Football League, although in the film he comes across as a sensitive and introverted young man with a lot of interests. I got the feeling he wasn't consumed by football as much as some who play the game; he wouldn't be devastated if he never played again. Football was just something he was good at. He made a lot of people happy by going to Arkansas. He might have been happier somewhere else. But he made the choice. He had other things he could do with his life.
Wolfe's camera allows Mustain to tell his story his way, in a voice free of false modesty and self-aggrandizement. Mustain, for all his diffusion, comes across as a grownup, cognizant of the expectations and reasonable doubts of others. He offers no apologies, only an explanation.
In the film, Mustain doesn't seem that different from a lot of young people. He's a little restless, with maybe a touch of attention-deficit, but possessed of undeniable intelligence and thoughtfulness. Wolfe's movie is strong -- one of the best sports documentaries of recent years -- precisely because it doesn't default to the conventions of the genre by dismissing Mustain's thoughtfulness as flakiness. It would play even better with an audience unfamiliar with Mustain's story. Outsiders would have a better perspective on the surreal nature of his ordeal.
MovieStyle on 01/02/2015