Score for 'Harvard Beats Yale 29-29'

I just found out, via Rotten Tomatoes, about this crazy documentary film called Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Director Kevin Rafferty, who served as a cameraman to first-time director Michael Moore on Roger and Me, brings wit and fresh perspective to American culture in 1968 by recounting the story of a wacky college football game.

According to the Toronto Film Fest, he interviews players on both sides about the game and so much more, namely the unique socio-political climate of the time. Hot issues four decades ago were Vietnam, birth control, and student insurrection.

Some former Ivy League students at that time include Tommy Lee Jones, at Harvard, who recalls in the film a campus where "ideas were flying like bullets." At Yale, the student comic strip Doonesbury introduced a jock named B.D. inspired by Brian Dowling, the school's star quarterback. Players from both schools were roommates with Al Gore (Harvard) and George W. Bush (Yale). Rafferty himself is Dubya's first cousin!

Rotten Tomatoes gives this under-the-radar flick a rating of 86 percent, higher than Quantum of Solace and the Madagascar sequel and Role Models. Heck, that's higher than Oscar powerhouses such as Changeling and W. That's higher than Vicky Christina Barcelona and Tropic Thunder, both rated totally fresh by consensus of the nation's movie critics. This little doc is right up there with the year's best, so check it out!

--Anna Bengel