Review of Fighting (2014) by Cecilia L — 26 Nov 2009

At its best it is a fascinating personal vision of a city montiel is fond of and he shows it in interesting ways. like the thug entering a shot, doing a backflip off a wall, acknowledging the camera with a glance and then disappearing as quickly as he appeared.

then there's the pink bunny cart and so on and so forth. montiel's fascination with the city is only matched by that with his star, tatum. there are certainly moments of "ohbrother" and the ending was kind of the cinematic equivalent of "bang" flag popping out of a gun.

the fight scenes are actually pretty awesome and tatum's character is given this self-concious portrayal as when he follows his love interest into her room, demanding she take his money for her rent and trying to explain his feelings for her, channing lets out a genuinely frustrated "i don't know how.

.." before kissing her and it works so well. I just loved those moments mixed in with these highly kinetic fight scenes. it makes a truly idiosyncratic film out of something that could've been totally useless.