Review: Fighting With My Family

-
It was my dream too.

Saraya (Florence Pugh) and Zak Knight(Jack Lowden) are amateur wrestlers in Norwich, England. Their parents (Nick Frost and Lena Headey) are wrestlers too and when Saraya and Zak get the opportunity to try out for the WWE, Saraya makes the cut as Paige and goes on to become the youngest ever Diva's Champion.

I've been watching wrestling on and off my entire life. Most recently, however feels like the longest spell I've gone without watching it week to week. I still try to read my favorite wrestling blogs to keep up with everything, but truthfully I haven't watched consistently since 2016 or so. Paige does have an interesting story and Florence Pugh has been on a roll lately with everything she touches, so when my theater opened this, I knew I had to see it.

Though plenty of liberties and changes were made, I loved how this film captured what life is like in WWE's developmental territory. Just seeing the work outs and how things go in the ring and on the indie circuit was a joy and made me miss going to live shows. Unfortunately a lot of theatrical cliches come along with all this authenticity. Your musical work out montages, family drama, mean girl drama, Paige changing her look to try to fit in, only to switch it back to being herself.  Those bits bring the film down and had I not been a fan of wrestling beforehand, this may have been a deal breaker for me.

The actors are all fantastic, especially Pugh and Lowden. Their sibling rivalry feels natural. Unfortunately it's only the Knight family that gets real development. Her coaches and fellow wrestlers in NXT do not get anything close to it. 

If you're a wrestling fan, I definitely recommend checking this out, and if you're just looking for something feel good, this should work for you too.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B- 

Memorable Quote: "What are you dickheads after?" - Young Saraya (Tori Ellen Ross)

Comments

  1. Carson Maitland - SmithMarch 1, 2019 at 5:18 AM

    Awesome WWE biopic 💛💜❤️💙

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 1, 2019 at 10:19 AM

      Probably the best movie to come from their studio.

      Delete
  2. Drew @ Man About WordsMarch 1, 2019 at 6:52 AM

    This looked rather fun, and it's always neat to see recognizable faces in unexpected roles (cough, Headey, cough). I'll have to check this out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 1, 2019 at 10:19 AM

      Headey is so wonderful. I'm going to miss her as Cersei so much.

      Delete
  3. s.March 1, 2019 at 1:29 PM

    There's a movie with Florence, Jack and Lena?! I never even heard of it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. thevoid99March 1, 2019 at 7:05 PM

    I'd watch it mainly for Florence Pugh whom I like a lot after seeing her in Lady Macbeth. I know there's a lot of dramatic liberties about Paige's story as well as material they didn't want to touch upon but I'd check it out once it's on TV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 2, 2019 at 6:48 AM

      I'm glad they left out all the drama of her last few years, personally. That just sucks and I feel bad for her.

      Delete
    2. thevoid99March 2, 2019 at 4:47 PM

      Same here. I really that Alberto El Pendejo. He used her to end his marriage and almost put her into a lot of trouble with her job and also was treating her like shit. I don't care what kind of MMA training he has. I'll kick that puto-bitch's ass. For Paige.

      Delete
    3. Brittani BurnhamMarch 2, 2019 at 10:12 PM

      Del Rio seems...well...exactly like his wrestling persona. lol

      Delete
  5. KatyMarch 9, 2019 at 4:57 PM

    Nice review! I quite enjoyed this one being a wrestling fan too. It made me miss going to live events, and the last one I went to was last year. lol Loved the cast and that The Rock had enough passion to produce the movie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 9, 2019 at 7:21 PM

      Agreed. Live events are so wonderful you really do see the best wrestling at them.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more