Film: "Bleed For This"
Miles Teller brings the intensity of Whiplash to the ring in this true story of an unstoppable boxer.
This story begins as boxer Vinny Pazienza, a world lightweight champion, suffers a humiliating defeat at the hands of Roger Mayweather and faces the possibility that his career is over. Writer-director Ben Younger (Boiler Room) tells, with tremendous assurance and vitality, an amazing true tale of the setbacks and increasingly fantastical comebacks that follow. Miles Teller (Whiplash) effortlessly commands the screen, clearly intending to enter the cinematic Hall of Fame of actor-boxers. The superb supporting cast includes Ciarán Hinds as Vinny’s domineering father, Katey Sagal as his silent, prayerful mother and Ted Levine as his sly manipulative manager. But the unforeseeable revelation is supplied by Aaron Eckhart, who fully inhabits the role of Kevin Rooney, Vinny’s alcoholic trainer; his quietly anguished hunger for redemption matches Vinny’s nearly suicidal will-to-win. D: Ben Younger, US, 2016, 117m
