Thursday, October 21, 2010
HONOR VS THE PURSE
Today's Mamet film was
This is a fight film. Mamet has covered all the bases. It is right up there with all the predecessors and more. Mamet more.
Here we have Mixed Martial Arts Fighting. In caps because it is now professionalized which is the theme of the picture. All the same basic characters are still there. The manager, the fixer, the family and so on all with the Mamet twist.
And a cast full of the Mamet stock company. Some who were stars have bits and others more.
The star is Chiwetel Ejiofor who I have seen in Dirty Pretty Things (2002) among others. A British actor of some renown.
This film is a whirlwind. The fights both legit or in a ring or in the street are convincing.
The scale is small, focusing on character. The conflict between making money or maintaining his honor despite many financial setbacks. This being Mamet, there is a con, a setup to make the hero need the money desperately.
This would be a step up from the simple boxer who just wants to win.
This guy doesn't want to win per se. He wants to learn. To be strong and good.
Hard to do when you are kicking the shit out of someone.
It is a little garbled in retrospect but in the film itself there is no question. I got carried away. It took a while to come down from the experience.
I will give this film a 4 out of Netflix5.
And thus endeth the Mamet fest. There is one more film Oleanna (1994) which is still in pending queue. Not yet a DVD. I am waiting. But my guess it will not make it into disc. It is about sexual harassment or not. Not a who done it but more a did it get done.
Labels: films
