Movie Review The Fighter

The Fighter (2010) 

Directed by David O. Russell

Written by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Scott Siliver 

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo

Release Date December 10th, 2010 

Published December 7th, 2010

'Irish' Mickey Ward's battles with Arturo 'Thunder' Gatti are three of the greatest in ring wars that the boxing world has seen in the past 2 or 3 decades. These two warriors bloodied and battered each other for 12 rounds in three consecutive fights, two of which were named by Ring Magazine as fight of the year. The second fight likely would have also won fight of the year if it had not taken place the same year as the first.

How Micky Ward rose to those fights against Gatti, the apex of his career, is the story of “The Fighter” a sports drama from director David O. Russell and starring Mark Wahlberg in a role that he trained for four years for; all while trying to wrangle a director, turned down by Scorsese, abandoned by Darren Aronofsky, and a studio to make the movie.

As we join the story of “The Fighter” Micky Ward (Wahlberg) is a scuffling welterweight fighter in the midst of a losing streak. Many in the boxing world peg Ward's troubles to his brother/trainer Dicky Eklund a failed pro fighter who peaked in the late 70's in a fight with the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard before succumbing to crack addiction.

More than a decade after his boxing peak Dicky holds out hope of making an in ring comeback, a lie perpetuated by Micky and Dicky's mom/manager Alice (Melissa Leo). For now however, Dicky wastes hours and days in a dingy crack house when he is supposed to be prepping Micky for a bout on national television in Atlantic City.

The fight is a debacle as the fighter that Ward was supposed to face dropped out due to illness. The replacement is a full weight class above Micky but because no one will get paid if he doesn't fight, Dicky and Alice push Micky into the ring and Micky's career is nearly ended. This conflict unfolds in the first act of “The Fighter” and director David O. Russell elegantly flows these burgeoning conflicts into the second act where Dicky gets arrested, Micky gets hurt in the melee around Dicky's arrest and the family is shattered.

What separates “The Fighter” from your average sports movie? Not much really, despite a heavyweight cast “The Fighter” is essentially, at its heart, a classic sports movie. Director David O. Russell's challenge then was to find little ways for “The Fighter” to break the mold of the typical and he finds that in an indie style, low budget look that fits the rundown setting of aging Lowell Massachusetts, Micky and Dicky's longtime hometown.

Another departure from the typical sports movie comes in the clever mimicry of Micky Ward's actual fights. David O. Russell teamed with the real life sports director from HBO for scenes depicting Micky's Championship fight against Brit Shea Nealy. Using the actual call of the fight from the HBO boxing announcers brings an extra bit of authenticity to the brutal fight scene and underscores the reality of what we are seeing in the ring.

So many boxing movies amp up the noise of the punch or speed up the action to a point where two men could not possibly punch each other continuously without passing out from exhaustion; but not here, not in this movie. Restrained by Mark Wahlberg's strict adherence to the way Micky Ward actually fought and kept in pace by the actual call of the fights as they happened back in the late 90's, the boxing in “The Fighter” looks and feels true.

Also feeling true in “The Fighter '' is the family of Micky Ward. David O. Russell could not have been more blessed with a cast. Oscar nominees Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, who plays Ward's tough as nails girlfriend Charlene, are an electronic duo who clash personalities like a car wreck on the Lowell Parkway. Melissa Leo is backed up by an army of unknown actresses who take on the roles of Micky and Dicky’s sisters and their authentic look, just slightly behind the times, and their raw trailer park energy make their scenes as lively as any in “The Fighter.”

Christian Bale is the stand out as Dicky, a flashy role that Bale nevertheless makes real with his mastery of the real Dicky Eklund a gregarious yet troubled soul who maintained a strong sense of humor and self even as he was in the grips of addiction. That is attested to in a 1994 documentary that aired on HBO about Dicky's addiction to crack. "High on Crack Street" played a big part in Bale's research of the role as did the presence of the real Dicky Eklund who Bale bonded with off-screen.

The underrated MVP of “The Fighter” is Mark Wahlberg not for his performance which is hampered somewhat by being the least colorful of a group of colorful characters but for the work he did in dedicating himself to telling this story. Wahlberg grew up not too far from where Micky Ward did and like Micky he found trouble early in his own life only to get things turned around in a big way.

Wahlberg had to tell this story and you can see his blood, sweat and tears determination to get Ward right in every frame of “The Fighter.”

If the film is ultimately a conventional sports movie so be it, “The Fighter” has the heart and energy of the best of the genre but with David O. Russell, Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg breaking their backs to tell this story there is something more here, an intangible quality that sets “The Fighter” apart and lifts it well above just a sports movie.

Movie Review The Equalizer 2

The Equalizer 2 (2018) 

Directed by Antoine Fuqua 

Written by Richard Wenk 

Starring Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo

Release Date July 20th, 2018

Published July 18th, 2018

The Equalizer 2 stars Denzel Washington, once again in the role of McCaul, a former CIA Agent turned good guy vigilante. When we meet McCaul in this sequel he is on a train in Turkey with a fake beard. McCaul is attempting to retrieve the daughter of a woman he knows that has been illegally taken by her ex-husband and scuttled out of the country. The scene is a re-introduction to the unique set of skills McCaul has; which includes timing the way he beats up bad guys. 

This scene has nothing to do with the plot of The Equalizer 2 other than as a way of contextualizing the character for those who may not have seen the first film in this budding franchise. Then again, the plot of The Equalizer 2 is so loose and threadbare it’s hard to say which scenes are necessary and which are indulgent, unnecessary scenes intended only to show what a god-like, benevolent being McCaul is.

The plot, such as it is, kicks in when McCaul’s friend, Susan (Melissa Leo) is murdered while investigating a murder in Belgium. McCaul immediately smells a rat and decides to come out of hiding in order to investigate. His first visit is to his former partner, Dave (Pedro Pascal). Dave was with Susan in Belgium when she was murdered, helping her investigate. Is Dave a friend or a suspect? You will have to see the movie to find out but if you’ve seen a movie, you likely already know.

Antoine Fuqua hasn’t made a movie this lazy and loosely structured since King Arthur, which is the last time it felt like he was making something even he didn’t care for. The Equalizer 2 ranges from boring action to boring scenes of unneeded exposition to equally boring establishing scenes of a character who is on hand only to be device later in the movie. I’m afraid that if I even begin to describe this character it might be a spoiler as the device is so nakedly predictable.

Denzel Washington has been on auto-pilot since his 2012’s Flight. That’s the last time I can recall seeing Denzel fully invested in fleshing out and living within a character. That may sound funny for those who point to his Academy Award nominated work in Fences and Roman J. Esquire and think I am crazy, but I am not a fan of either of those performances. Both of those movies are showy, over the top, capital P: Performances, not great acting.

In Fences, Washington is performing for the stage and not the screen. His bombastic performance is ill-suited for the movie screen. Roman J. Israel meanwhile, is a different kind of over the top, a performance that is all tics and mannerisms. These performances are, at least, not boring, they have a vitality that The Equalizer 2 does not have. Despite how much he shapes this character and seems to care about it, he comes off as rather bored.

Bored is probably an unfair, even inaccurate way of describing Denzel’s performance. I’m sure his intent is to be inscrutable or unflappable, but it comes off unaffected and uninvested. Part of that is Denzel’s fault but a bigger part is the fault of Fuqua who fails to give the movie around Denzel’s performance much life. The film aims for moody but arrives at tired, it aims for gritty and ends mildly irritated.

Even the action, which had been the best part of the original The Equalizer, is lifeless in comparison and that film wasn’t exactly lively. The first The Equalizer appeared invested in its action, if not in creating memorable characters or a believable story worth investing in. Denzel’s physicality is fully present in that performance and is less so here. I’m not going to speculate about Denzel aging, because he could easily take me in a fight, despite having 20 years on me age wise, but regardless he appears slowed.

Denzel being a little slower might have worked in the film’s favor if the movie had used it but instead, the movie appears slowed down so Denzel can keep up. Denzel is at all times quicker and smarter than everyone else in the movie, even people younger than him who he apparently taught and influenced when he was a member of the CIA. I’m nitpicking here but shouldn’t this character, at very least, feel a little bit of angst about this fight?

I won’t go into spoilers but the ending of The Equalizer is nonsense. It’s filmed in the midst of a

hurricane on an empty Martha’s Vineyard or some such town and it’s a shame to say, it’s not nearly as fun or exciting as a similar scene in Hurricane Heist earlier this year. Hurricane Heist is basically a parody of an actual movie. That movie, at the very least, knew how to have fun. The Equalizer 2 has the audacity to be dour on top of being predictable, lazy and sloppy.

Movie Review Frozen River

Frozen River (2008)

Directed by Courtney Hunt

Written by Courtney Hunt 

Starring Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Michael O'Keefe 

Release Date August 1st, 2008

Published January 29th, 2009

There has been a bit of unintended zeitgeist capturing at the movie theaters recently. You have Clive Owen battling evil bankers in The International and Isla Fisher fending off creditors in Confessions of a Shopaholic. But the movie that may be the most on topic and of the moment is one that few people have heard of and fewer people have seen despite a slew of a awards nominations.

Melissa Leo is Oscar nominated for her role as a single mother named Ray in Frozen River. Ray's dirt bag husband has just absconded with their savings for a gambling binge. He won't be back. This means she won't be able to make the payment on the new double wide trailer that was to arrive that day. It's headed back to the lot.

Ray has two kids, 5 and 15. They have so little money for food that one morning breakfast consists of popcorn and Tang. When Ray see's her husband's car at the local bingo parlor, on a local Indian reservation on the border between New York and Canada, she thinks maybe he's still in town. Instead she meets Lila (Misty Upham) who took Ray's husband's car after he left it at the bus station with the keys inside.

She didn't want just any car, this car had trunk space and an automatic opener, ideal for her job smuggling illegal Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants across the border from Canada to the states. In need of cash Ray goes into business with Lila and a dangerous situation develops as the two desperate women risk everything for the modest comforts a little cash can provide.

Frozen River comes from writer director Courtney Hunt and in these harsh economic climes it may be the most of the moment movie out there. Not that all poor people turn to human smuggling when things get tough. But, there are desperate, aching, underemployed people and undernourished children all across this country. Frozen River captures the desolate sadness felt by millions as jobs dry up and money goes from tight to nearly non-existent.

Melissa Leo is extraordinary in conveying the determination of a drowning woman willing to risk her life and anything else to keep a roof over her kids heads. She goes without food for a few days at a time. She works a thankless job at sub-par pay. When an opportunity for a quick 12 hundred dollars comes her way she isn't about to get prideful over criminality or moralistic about the law.

If you can't recognize a little of Melissa Leo's Ray somewhere in your life, even if it is just that nice lady bagging your groceries at the store, you live in some kind of dream world. This kind of desperation is eating at the edges of middle and lower middle class America across the country. No movie has captured this nearly as well as Frozen River.

That maybe why the film is so little seen. People tend to go to the movies to escape their problems. Frozen River is a reflection of the problems felt by so many and the images are troubling and heartbreaking.