Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Vincent Grashaw
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Glenn Plummer, Andrew Liner, Erica
Gimpel, Nina Arianda, Daniella Pineda, Kevin Corrigan
Whenever a sportsperson decides to retire early it always prompts a chorus
of angry fans bemoaning how the athlete is selfishly giving up a life most
kids can only dream of. But not every kid dreams of entering the world of
sports; some are pushed into it by parents who unfairly attempt to use their
kids' talents to correct their own perceived failings in life. For all the
money and glamour, if you've spent your best years living your father's
dreams rather than your own, it can't be much fun.
We've had revisionist westerns and revisionist horror movies. With
Bang Bang, director Vincent Grashaw and writer Will Janowitz might
have made the first revisionist boxing movie. Its anti-hero, Bernard "Bang
Bang" Rozyski, is one such case of an athlete pushed into his sport by a
domineering father. Once a local Detroit legend, Bernard is now as broken
down as his city. He's kept his wiry frame thanks to a diet of largely
inedible ketchup sandwiches which he immediately vomits up, but his hips are
so bad he needs a wheelchair to make any extended trips. Bernard is still
bitter about losing his one shot at true stardom when a fight with another
local boxer, Darnell Washington (Glenn Plummer), was called off at
the last minute in suspicious circumstances. With Darnell currently running
for city mayor, Bernard can't escape his face on campaign posters, not to
mention the ubiquitous TV commercials for his own brand of blender.
Bernard is an angry old man with nobody left to punch. He gets a focus for
his aggression when he's left in charge of his estranged grandson, Justin
(Andrew Liner), who went astray and is now stuck in Detroit
fulfilling community service for drug offences while his mother (Nina Arianda) relocates to Chicago for a new job. Bernard takes one look at his
grandson's muscular frame and decides he could have what it takes to make it
in the ring. Justin has never harboured any pugilist ambitions, but
Bernard's talk of money and "pussy" seduces him into giving it a shot.
Bang Bang plays with our familiarity with the tropes of the
boxing movie to hook us into what we initially think is another typical
story of an underdog getting a shot at changing their life. Much of the
movie resembles the Rocky franchise if it had skipped forward to
Creed
without establishing the character of Rocky Balboa over six previous movies.
Bernard dispenses the sort of working class wisdom Rocky is known for, we
get the inspirational training montages and even a Pauly figure in Bernard's
alcoholic friend John (Kevin Corrigan). Justin has the wide-eyed
enthusiasm of Hilary Swank in Clint Eastwood's
Million Dollar Baby (and Bernard's bitter old Polish-American
owes a debt to the grouchy protagonist of Eastwood's own Detroit drama,
Gran Torino).
But as Mike Tyson famously put it, everyone has a plan until they get
punched in the mouth. It becomes clear that for all his enthusiasm, Justin
may not have what it takes, that Bernard is exploiting the young man in
exactly the same way as his own father used him. Bernard sees his grandson
as a second shot at greatness, loading his broad shoulders with the burden
of his own broken dreams. Unlike traditional boxing movies, where we root
for the underdog to make it to the top, we're not sure if we really want
this for Justin, because he's not sure if he even wants for himself.
As Bernard, Nelson delivers a knockout performance, the sort that would
prompt a boxer to immediately retire because they suspect they'll never be
this good again. Boxing movies tend to focus on the heavier weight classes,
so it's amusing to see this waif talk about what a tough guy he once was.
But you believe every word of it. Nelson carries himself with that
contradictory mix of cockiness and self-loathing that can make short, wiry
guys so dangerous. He moves like someone who spent their years sparring in a
gym, constantly ducking and weaving against imaginary foes, against a world
he believes is trying to finish him off with a knockout blow. He's a bitter,
angry man, and yet we can't help but empathise with him because he's also a
victim, and in his own way he's deeply charismatic.
Bang Bang is essential viewing for fans of great acting, or of
boxing, but especially for parents who insist on weighing their kids down
with the baggage of their own faded aspirations.
Bang Bang plays at the
2024 Vashon Island Film Festival on August 11th.
