Bleed for This

Posted on November 17, 2016 at 5:44 pm

We watch sports for the skill.

We love sports for the heart.

Sports stories give us heroes whose determination and courage is constantly tested. The athletes who face those challenges — who live for those challenges — can help us understand and face our own. Vinny Pazienza was a great boxer, but what made him heroic was not his skill in the ring or his unprecedented wins in three different weight classes. It was his comeback from injuries he got in a deadly car crash, including a broken neck so severe that it was not clear whether he would ever walk again. He was given the choice between spinal fusion that would guarantee that he could walk but would prevent him from getting back in the ring, or six months in a Torquemada-style halo contraption literally screwed into his skull, where the slightest bump could paralyze him forever but, if everything went perfectly he might regain enough mobility to fight again, he chose the halo. He ended up resuming his training — against the advice of his doctors — and removing the halo after three months, then returning to boxing. Let me put it this way: knocked down worse by life than by any opponent in the ring, he was up by 9.

For his first film in more than ten years, writer/director Ben Younger (“Prime,” “Boiler Room”) tells the true story of one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Miles Teller, himself a survivor of a serious car accident, plays Pazienza, known as Vinnie Paz. We first see him sweating out the last few minutes before a weigh-in, swathed in plastic wrap, on a stationary bike, determined to make weight so he can still qualify as a lightweight. He just makes it, stripped down to a thong. That night, instead of getting some rest, he stays up most of the night playing blackjack and having sex. But the next day, he wins.

Vinnie loves his fights. After each one, he’s ready for the next. His mother listens from the next room, holding her rosary and lighting candles as his sister watches the fights on television. But his father (Ciaran Hinds) is literally in his corner, urging him on and arguing with his fight promoters. Vinnie switches to a new trainer, Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart), who has a sometime drinking problem but who has taken fighters all the way to the top. Kevin persuades him to stop trying to qualify for the junior welterweight class and put on some extra weight to fight as a junior middleweight. Things go pretty well until the car accident.

And that is how he learns who he is. Vinnie has never stopped for anything and nothing has stopped him. He worked hard at boxing, but never considered why or whether it mattered to him. Literally and metaphorically immobilized, he discovers that the combination of recklessness and determination gives him a way to get back in the ring.

Teller is one of the best young actors working today, and he makes Vinnie’s physicality real. His chemistry with Eckert gives what could be yet another boxing story hold our attention, even without the usual romance. Younger makes the family scenes of a rowdy middle class Italian vibrant — you can almost smell the oregano. And the story of resilience and redemption is always welcome, especially when it is as well told as it is here.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, brutal fight scenes, and graphic and disturbing images including a fatal car accident, surgery, and other medical procedures. Characters smoke and drink, including alcohol abuse.

Family discussion: Who helped Vinnie the most? Why did fighting matter so much to him?

If you like this, try: “The Fighter” and “Creed”

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Southpaw

Posted on July 23, 2015 at 5:58 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language throughout, and some violence
Profanity:	Constant very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Intense boxing scenes with disturbing images, gun violence, murder, suicidal behavior, child removed from her family
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	July 25, 2105
Date Released to DVD:	October 26, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:	B012BPM536

Didactic and unabashedly manipulative, “Southpaw” borrows from almost every boxing movie ever made. It telegraphs every development and then, in case we missed it, tells us what just happened. The dialogue is purplish and melodramatic. The filmmaking is self-consciously arty, with shadows and reflections — or smoke and mirrors. The storyline is so soapy it almost slides off the screen. As Thelma Ritter says in “All About Eve,” “Everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end.” Scriptwriter Kurt Sutter (“Sons of Anarchy”) has to learn to trust his audience.

Heartfelt performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, and Forest Whitaker give the story more weight than it deserves, and director Antoine Fuqua knows how to film the boxing scenes so that each is a drama of its own.

A movie hero generally has to start with nothing and get something or start with everything, lose it all, and then get it back. Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope (this film really does hit every point home with a sledgehammer), who had nothing and now, as the movie begins, has it all, so we know he has to lose it. Hope grew up in what we used to call orphanages. All he had was a girl named Maureen who believed in him and guided him and an anger so powerful that he could use it in the ring the way Popeye uses spinach.

We see him before a title fight, his hands getting wrapped in pristine gauze under the supervision of the referees, who literally sign off on them before the gloves go on. Billy has a moment alone with Maureen (Rachel McAdams, in a richly observed performance). And then there is the fight. He gets hit until he gets furious enough to battle back with everything he has, and then he wins. He and Maureen return to their mansion, kiss their adorable daughter Leila (Oona Laurence), and go to bed. And then it is all gone, and he has to literally fight his way back, mopping floors at a dingy, inner-city gym and being trained by a crusty old pro (Burgess Meredith, no, I mean Forest Whitaker). He has to learn boxing all over again.

Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation, so soon after his skeletal appearance in “Nightcrawler,” could be stunt-ish — or just a chance for him to get back in shape. But he makes us feel the almost feral elements of Billy’s understanding of the world around him, and he shows us the way his growing understanding of himself as he has to take responsibility for his choices is reflected in the ring. His scenes with McAdams are deeply felt, tender, and sexy. The movie gets a split decision, but Gyllenhaal and McAdams are a knockout.

Parents should know that this film has constant very strong language, sexual references and a non-explicit situation, brutal and bloody boxing matches, gun violence, drinking and drugs, sad deaths of a parent and a young teen, references to domestic abuse and prostitution, child removed from family, suicidal behavior and assault.

Family discussion: Why did Tick make Billy clean the gym? Was the judge right to take Leila away? Why did Billy need to change his style of fighting?

If you like this, try: “Rocky,” “Warriors,” and “Body and Soul”

Grudge Match

Posted on December 24, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Not that this is going to come as a surprise to anyone, but this movie is not just bad, it is sad. The stars of two of the greatest boxing movies of all time are not just slumming here. They trash their pasts and ours, too, with a bunch of jokes about prostates, jock itch, hookers, the financial rewards of Kardashian sex tapes, and what “BJ” stands for. If you think it is hilarious for a father and grandfather tell a child that “BJ” stands for butterscotch jellybeans — wink wink nudge nudge — then this is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Oh, and a prison rape joke. When the end credits list the roles in the film as “tranny hooker” and “puking boxer,” you get the idea. Plus, there’s an extended scene with a bucket of horse urine.

“Razor” Sharp (Sylvester Stallone from “Rocky’) and Kid (Robert De Niro from “Raging Bull”) play former light heavyweight champions who fought each other twice, one win for each. They bitterly dislike each other for personal and professional reasons. But they agree to throw some punches for a computer game. Footage of them scuffling at a video game studio in green motion capture suits goes viral and the impulsive and ambitious son of their former promoter (Kevin Hart) persuades them to fight each other for real. Cue the training montage and the jokes that ended up on the cutting room floor from “Grumpy Old Men.”

Razor agrees to the fight because he needs the money. He is broke, losing his job, and caring for his old trainer (Alan Arkin). Kid agrees to fight because he wants to win. He’s doing fine financially, with a car dealership and a bar called “Knock Out.” In one of several sad, soggy call-outs to previous greatness, his shtick-y puppet routine in the bar is a reminder of the brilliant end of “Raging Bull,” when an overweight Jake LaMotta tries to perform in his nightclub. It still rankles him that he lost the last bout with Razor and he is sure he can win this time.

Kim Basinger shows up as the real reason for the feud. And there’s a long-lost son who happens to be just the guy to get Kid back in shape, starting with getting the fighter to stop those breakfasts of Scotch and pancakes. The son’s name is BJ and he is played by John Bernthal, the only person in this movie who comes off with any class and dignity, even when the script calls for him to forgive a man whose idea of babysitting is to take a child to a bar while he goes off to have sex with someone he just met in the parking lot. Poor Alan Arkin for the second time in 2013 is stuck with the role of the guy who insults the staff at his assisted living facility and is supposed to be funny just because it’s an old guy being crude.

There are many, many jokes about how old these guys are. They are bad. There are winking references to their better work. They are awful. So is this movie.

Parents should know that this movie includes extremely crude sexual references and very strong and vulgar language for a PG-13, as well as a car crash and boxing violence with some graphic images of injuries.

Family discussion: Why does Kid want to fight? Who were you rooting for and why?

If you like this, try: “Rocky” and “Raging Bull”

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Comedy Family Issues Sports

‘The Fighter’s’ Micky Ward and Dickie Eklund — The Real Story

Posted on December 8, 2010 at 3:59 pm

One of the year’s best films is “The Fighter,” with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale as boxing brothers Micky Ward and Dickie Eklund and Melissa Leo as their mother, Alice. Micky and Dickie (who asked that his name be spelled “Dicky” in the movie, so he could match his brother) grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, a once-thriving mill town that fell on hard times when the textile business moved to the South. Dickie became a boxer who was referred to as “The Pride of Lowell.” He was Micky’s hero. But by the time Micky, the son of Alice’s second husband, was old enough to box, Dickie was a crack addict. The man who once knocked down boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard was featured in an HBO documentary called High on Crack Street. The movie is the story of the conflicts Micky faced as he had to decide whether to go with an outside manager who would pay him for training and take him away from Lowell or stay with his family, using Alice as his manager and Dickie as his trainer.

This project was a long-time dream for Mark Wahlberg, and he and director David O. Russell made sure that some of the details were authentic. The gym in the film is not a movie set; it is the real place where Ward trained and still trains. One of his cornermen, a police officer named Mickey O’Keefe, is played in the film by O’Keefe himself.

But, as with any feature film, there is some dramatic license in the characters and events in order to turn the messiness of real life into a story that can fit into two hours. For more information about the real story, check out The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward and “Fighter” More Fiction Than Fact. Here’s a look at the real Micky and Dickie.

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The Real Story

Interview: Taylor Hackford of ‘Love Ranch’

Posted on June 30, 2010 at 3:59 pm

How did director Taylor Hackford (“An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Ray“) get Dame Helen Mirren (Oscar-winner for “The Queen“) agree to appear in his film, “Love Ranch,” the story of Reno’s first legal brothel? It helped that she is his wife. But, as he told me in this interview, she had turned him down six or seven times when he’d asked her to appear in his movies. This time, though, he had what it took to get her to agree, a role of such range and force that she found it irresistible. In this film she plays Grace, a madam since she was 20, tough and cynical. And then she meets someone who opens her to feelings she never imagined she was capable of.
Tell me about the movie. I know that it is inspired by the true story of the Confortes, who ran the first legal brothel in Reno, Nevada, and an Argentine boxer.
The essence of what’s behind this film is — can not just one but three cynical professionals with no romantic delusions — can they find that they are overcome by their emotions, that passion explodes, that love and jealousy and all those things overpower them and take control. All this taking place in this cynical world where you’re selling sex, which is not erotic but businesslike.
I loved the costume design in this movie. The clothes did more than evoke the 1970’s — they really helped to tell the story, illuminating the characters and how they changed over the course of the film.
It’s great you say that. I went with a very young designer. Her name is Melissa Bruning. She had not done a lot of films, but she gave me her book, she draws, she has a great style, and I decided to take a chance. I didn’t have a big budget so she didn’t have a lot to work with but she just does fantastic work. The important thing here is you’re doing a film in the 70’s, and it’s a very arch era, big hair, disco, everything was high styled. Some people would make the whole film about that. But I wanted the actors to be wearing the clothes instead of the clothes wearing the actors. She found a lot of vintage clothes, all that lingerie, all those things the girls are wearing, that’s all period stuff. She did build some clothes for Helen. These clothes helped define these characters.
The antecedents of these characters are real. The character played by Joe Pesci is based on Joe Conforte who was an Italian from the Northeast but once he came West he affected the clothes and the style of his customers who were truck drivers and cowboys. You know by the clothes Charlie is wearing that he’s still got New Jersey all over him even though he is trying to have this bravura style of the West. Each actor collaborated with Melissa in their own way.
I like the way the costumes don’t just show us the characters but they show us how the characters change, especially Grace.
You see her come alive. My wife is incredibly brave. She goes for whatever the character needs regardless of the way she looks. People appreciate the fact when someone is real, not phony. When you meet Grace , she is plenty tough, she is a cynical professional; I don’t think there’s an ounce of romantic illusion left in her. She’s tired, she’s done this for a long time. She’s sick. She discovers she’s terminal. She knows her husband is a philanderer. You can have that knowledge, but you don’t want your nose rubbed in it. She’s an unhappy person. Helen allowed herself to have that look. She has the big hair and the outfit, but it’s a uniform. She is tired, she doesn’t look so good, but as she discovers that it isn’t over for her, as the juices start to flow, she comes alive. Part of that is hair, makeup and costume and part is the actress herself, and the transformation is wonderful.
You worked with three stars from three different countries and three different acting traditions. How did you get them to work together so seamlessly?
Two things. When I first mentioned to people I as pairing Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci, they looked at me like I was joking. But I knew with both of them, their traditions are different but the commitment is total. You’ll never see either of them go half-way. They immediately hit it off. Neither one would give an inch and they realized, “We really feed off each other.” I thought they were terrific together.
The biggest and most difficult casting situation — it’s not a duet at the core of this film, it’s a trio. Joe and Helen are consummate thoroughbreds. Then the actor who plays Bruza, he has to go toe to toe with them. He’s younger, but he’s a forceful character, a boxer from Argentina. It was really tough. To find an actor who could do that was, I thought, almost impossible, though he has this bravura exterior he has secrets and pain he has to reveal over the course of the film. My writer, Mark Jacobson, handed me a picture of Sergio Peris-Mencheta and said, “This guy is from Madrid, he has a great look and is supposed to be a pretty good actor.” He stopped in Los Angeles, he came to our house, and he and Helen read. It just was uncanny. He had the spark, the humor, the incredible intensity, the animal magnetism. Helen said, “There’s so much going on. This guy has it.” He is a physical man. He was the captain of Spain’s national rugby team. But he didn’t know anything about boxing and he’s a slender guy. He had to train at Gleason’s gym in Brooklyn and worked with Jimmy Glynn, a very famous boxing trainer and put on 35 pounds. I also liked his being there because he was speaking English. He is the great discovery in this film. He could be a big movie star.
I didn’t expect to see in the middle of this movie an electrifying — and brutal — boxing match.
I love boxing. I’ve always been a boxing fan. I was the co-filmmaker on “When We Were Kings.” This film is about the flesh business, selling flesh both in a brothel and in the boxing ring. There’s a kind of poetic metaphor in that world of flesh when you can find true love. So my own ego says that if there’s going to be a boxing scene, it’s got to be great. It’s like doing a love scene. It better be there for a reason. If it truly is about two people coming together and something being discovered, there is a place for it. This is a catalyst, it’s the moment where everybody’s role changes. Charlie’s dream turns into a nightmare. Bruza, based on the boxer Oscar Bonavena, is hiding something and we discover his weakness. Grace realizes his vulnerability and that drives her. You need to see the bitter reality and the horror she feels. Everyone takes a 90-degree turn at that moment.
I’m proud of it because it is a realistic approach to boxing, done in Bonavena’s style.
You shot the film in New Mexico rather than Reno. Why?
We got a tax credit to shoot there. But it’s not dissimilar. It’s that austere, monochromatic, look, bare but still beautiful. Juxtaposing that natural exterior with an artificial interior, where you’re never supposed to know whether it’s day or night, you’re supposed to lose yourself. That juxtaposition was a wonderful stylistic metaphor. But we did go to Reno for three days. It has not been the success story Vegas has and you can still capture the ethos of the 70’s because so much hasn’t changed.
What inspires you?
Talent. Story. I’m a story-teller. I know how to use a camera and style is important to me but I like to reveal a story through the actors. You can only achieve that through a level of trust. Telling a story I’m excited about and I try to do something different and not make the same film twice. If I can take a personal journey that takes me on an adventure, I’m interested.

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Behind the Scenes Directors Interview