Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Fighting With My Family

This is the first solid film of the year! This film is one of the best crafted Sports films I’ve seen since Creed! The entire cast all deliver incredibly strong performances from its lead Florence Pugh who gives a dominating star making performance to great supporting turns from Nick Frost, Lena Headey and Jack Lowden who all give tremendous performances theirs not one weak performance here the entire cast deliver magnificently. 

Firstly, The Tone  and style Of this film was fantastic. I have seen my fair share of Sports films so I know all the typical cliques that sports film reuse a lot of the times what makes this film so effective is that it doesn’t go that route it goes on such a separate path then most sports films it’s refreshing to see as its able to craft a compelling narrative with great emotion and heart without reusing the many tropes sports films fall victim to. It’s emotion feels earned and authentic in a way I haven’t seen in a very long time in sports films it’s ability to mix styles and tones of humour, heart and emotion with great strokes of sports in it mixed so well and the result is terrific. 

Secondly, Florence Pugh Gives a incredible performance in this film! She’s an actress that’s going to be everywhere after the success of this film as she really carries this film with her terrifically strong emotional badass performance she delivers in this film a captivating strong performance that will have you rooting for her. 

Lastly, This film sets itself apart from the usual sports film genre and really try’s something new in its execution that feels fresh and entertaining. From its lead actress delivering a star making performance to the entire rest of the cast all giving top notch performances. Fighting With My Family has heart humour emotion all captured so incredibly well. This film is this generations Rocky it’s a film I recommend everyone go see. 

This story is based on a true story it centres around Paige Knight a young blood Wrestling dreamer who wants to make it to the WWE and when she gets picked over her brother she has to show how much she wants it as she knows she’s got once shot at making her dreams become a reality. 

Rated PG - 13 : for crude and sexual material, language throughout, some violence and drug content

Florence Pugh : Florence gives a well captured performance with great depth and fantastic emotion. I have not seen her in anything before this and I can’t wait to see what she dose next as she proves here that she is a force to be reckoned with. She plays the centre lead and brings great emotional depth and charisma that crackles onscreen. She plays Paige Knight with this fantastic underdog quality that she brings to it and she really gets you invested in her and her story and by the end your pulling for her all of that works because of the great job Florence is showcasing onscreen. She gives a emotional turn with many layers of herself in the film as she can be very witty and sarcastic as well as very funny without it feeling like it’s to much but then she can also do the serious dramatic moments where she can speak in such a gripping and emotional tone you believe every word as she delivers it with amazing authenticity and a genuine feel to it. She commits 100 percent of herself to every scene she’s in. Their are great moments of emotion she sheds onscreen and sometimes she doesn’t need words to convey how she feels she can show such vulnerability with her eyes and it’s incredible to witness she just really delivers a brilliant performance that is on the level of Oscar caliber I can’t wait to see what she dose next as she blew me away with her amazing work in this film Florence Pugh is Phenomenal. 

Jack Lowden : Jack Lowden gives a incredibly strong supporting turn in this film. This is an actor I am not that familiar with but after seeing what he brings to this film I can’t wait to see what he dose next as he nails this film. He plays the older Brother and has such a dream to make it to the WWE but when he is not chosen for the spot he goes in a downward spiral of self denial and anger that he captured in a heartbreaking way onscreen. This guy who was just so full of life and spirit to just break when he’s not chosen and totally change his entire attitude and go on this very heartbreaking path was sad but captured fearlessly by Jack. As he was able to show the fantastic optimism of the person and show his great spirit and joyfulness but then also be able to channel a more serious tone to the person he’s portraying as he goes through such a intense character arc in the film and his sheer great ability to just go through so many layers of emotions and be able to convey them in such a believable and genuine way was genius. Theirs a scene in the film between him and the main character and they confront one another on how they feel towards one another and it’s a sad scene as you just see this great sense of hurt in his eyes and voice but is so angry he didn’t get picked and you really feel this wave of emotion that he delivers that’s so incredible as he uses so many different tones of emotions throughout his performance and he brings a fantastic part to the film with his splendid supporting performance which I hope people don’t overlook as he really turns in a fantastically emotionally layered performance that is truly magnificent! 

Lena Headey : Lena did a superb job in this film as the mother! She’s well known for her work in Game Of Thrones and gives a fantastic supporting turn in the film playing the mother in it. She isn’t in the film for a lot of it but when she is she freckles and shines in every moment giving great charisma and energy that is fantastic as she walks the fine line between comedy and dramatic as she’s able to deliver hilarious dialogue giving great moments of laughs that always landed but then was able to switch it and be so serious and genuinely dramatic and it worked so well she dominates the screen with her fantastic delivery that is comedic and dramatic and she’s just such fun to watch onscreen here A great performance by Headey. 

Vince Vaughn : Vaughn delivers a career turning performance in this film! Vince is primarily known for his comedic work like wedding crashers and swingers he has delved a bit into drama with True Detective and some other things but I have never seen him give such a layered performance like this before! Vince plays the Coach and in many ways reminded me of Mick from Rocky mixed with Samuel L Jackson from Coach Carter. And could of easily of made this a comedic part with witty dialogue which he dose do time to time but he also balances this dramatic act too that is so well balanced in his performance. Because he can be making fun of a athlete and it comes across as very funny with great comedic timing his jokes always landed and made me laugh out loud every time. But then he could tone it down and have serious dramatic moments that truly shine in the film because he’s aware and knows when to calm it down and switch it if he needs to and he did and it was fantastic. He has actually a great amount of serious moments in the film that are well shown emotionally and captured onscreen by him as you can hear the sadness in his voice and in his eyes and then he could be screaming in rage with such anger in his eyes and then he also could make you laugh he has such a great depth to his performance you can’t help love every moment he’s onscreen he’s truly amazing giving a incredibly strong supporting turn in the film. 

Nick Frost : Nick Frost is hilariously entertaining in this film! Nick Frost is well known for his comedic work and frequent collaborations with Edgar Wright so seeing him here just made me smile as he gives fantastic humour and wit while also showing some great depth of emotion also. He isn’t in the film for as much as I thought he would be but when he’s on the screen he steals every moment due to his fantastic charisma and his ability to just steal a scene with his great performance at hand. He has great comedic timing as just made me laugh every single moment but this time around he switches it around and he hasn’t really explored that before onscreen and here he dose and it’s brilliant as he shows more layers of what he can do as an actor and not just be seen as the funny man but also be able to channel so much more. And when he speaks he delivers the dialogue in such a meaningful way that you truly feel like it’s genuine he commits to every moment of this frame he brings the comedy he brings the emotion and delivers a fantastic supporting turn here. 

Stephen Merchant : Merchant gives a incredibly strongly directed film! This man is best known for the Office and his Comedic work but has more recently been delving into more serious material as he was recently in 2017’s Logan which saw him Channel things in a whole different light. And here he gives one of the best directed sports film I’ve seen ever! He stays true to the source material the film is based off of since it is a true story and does the film as accurate as possible. Obviously their are scenes that have been made up for dramatic value but he really dose a fitting job with his direction here. He doesn’t make the film fall into the cliques that many sports films do he was able to use that underdog story style but be able to approach it in a different way that made it so appealing. What I mean is he made it feel very realistic and grounded which for me got me more invested not only in the story but the characters he also casted incredible actors all of whom give solid work and he he casted actors in roles that suited them perfectly and it felt like these characters were lived in it just looked and felt so natural and then balancing the tones of the film as well. In the film their is a great amount of comedy and drama but one of the two never overdoes the other so it creates a even keel of shift in tones. He knew when to use a scene for comedic value and when it did the comedy always landed and then he also knew when to calm it down and take a moment and have emotional moments as well he really just directed this film beautifully. You can see the amount of heart that he put into this film as it shows greatly. It was just so refreshing and inspiring as Stephen Merchant gives one of the best directed sports film I’ve seen since Creed and Rush. I cannot wait to see what Stephen does next as he just knocks it out of the park with his direction here.