A tender takedown of toughness

This film is less a sports biopic than a slow-motion implosion. Adapted from the 2002 documentary on MMA legend Mark Kerr, it trades punches for pathos, exposing emotional bruises. The result is intimate and indulgent, an arthouse grapple that often feels like Uncut Gems on sedatives. Safdie's solo debut after parting ways with his brother Josh swaps adrenaline for ache, painting addiction, ego, and the loneliness of masculinity. At times grippingly humane, it sometimes wades too deep into melancholy, shadowboxing its way toward profundity.

- Troy Ribeiro

The narrative treads familiar ground: the athlete at peak, fall from grace, the tortured comeback. Yet Safdie's visual style; grainy VHS flickers and stately 65mm frames, gives the clichés a pulse of sincerity. What the film lacks in narrative muscle, it makes up for in texture. We watch Kerr win battles in Japan's Pride rings while losing wars with opioids and self-worth. The punches land, but the emotional blows are quieter, often arriving between bouts, when the camera lingers on him doing nothing but breathe.

Actors’ performance