Step Into The Ring With An Emotionally Powerful Feature Like Million Dollar Baby

Ever since Rocky delivered knockout box officer numbers over forty years ago, the boxing drama subgenre has been a prominent fixture of cinema all over the world. It's one that's reliable both in terms of drawing a crowd for studio and plucking at the heartstring of audiences. Plenty of duds exist in this cinematic niche (remember Southpaw or Grudge Match?), but when done well, like with Creed, the creative apex of this entire subgenre, there's really nothing quite like it. Clint Eastwood's 2004 directorial effort Million Dollar Baby is no Creed, but few movies are. Positive marks are in order for a movie like this one that rides on traditional storytelling to mask how crafty it is at knowing just when to strategically get the viewer wrapped up in a blanket made of emotions.

Good Luck Chuck, With A Movie Like This One, You're Gonna Need It

We've all heard of the movie Rocky, but do you know about the real-life boxer who helped inspire that famous film character? Despite the title leading you to think it was a film adaptation of a Zachary Levi NBC sitcom or perhaps a biopic of Chuck Berry, Chuck is all about the life and times of Chuck Wepner (portrayed here by Liev Schreiber), a boxer who got to fight Muhammad Ali (Pooch Hall) in a high profile fight that Wepner ended up losing. You might think that might have been shattering to Wepner, but he took the loss in stride and ended up becoming a minor celebrity due to him managing to briefly knock Ali off his feet during the fight.

Raging Bull Refuses To Box Its Character Into Conventional Sports Movie Narratives

My favorite part about Martin Scrosese's work is how much is bubbling underneath the surface of his works. Taxi Driver captures the post-Vietnam angst of an entire generation looking for a hero in an incredibly dangerous and psychotic way while The Wolf Of Wall Street provides an unflinching look at 21st century corruption. Something like Silence could fill multiple essays with its subtext and underlying ideas. For Raging Bull, there's admittedly not quite as much going on beneath the surface (it's very much a typical "Career victory leads to personal destruction" tale) but it's still quite the riveting tale, no doubt about that.

Classic Write-Up: The Fighter Review

A Fight (And A Performance) For The Ages

David O. Russell has quickly become one of cinemas most prominent writer/directors thanks to his 2012 and 2014 features Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Both received critical raves and massive box office, as well as vocal approval from this particular film critic. Both of those films, especially Hustle, are expertly made films, with excellent performances and thoughtful screenwriting. So I was eager to finally catch The Fighter, the movie made just before Russell reached his current popularity.