Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Review of Fighting with my family

CineMaterial, Fair use,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59374165
A literally knockabout comedy about a young woman from a wrestling family who is selected to go to America to make it big in professional wrestling their. I am not sure where to put the quote marks, because is it a profession? Is it really wrestling? 

It's a form of dramatised acrobatics really, with a morality play overlay - the villains, the surprises, the comebacks. Everybody involved knows it's not real fighting, especially the audience, but they relish the opportunity to participate in the fiction that it is.

The film was quite enjoyable, but wasn't quite able to make up its mind as to whether there really is any drama in who "wins" the bouts - to be a sport film the hero has to have an against-the-odds triumph, but since the film makes it abundantly clear that professional wrestling is a choreographed acrobatic drama, not a contest, we can't really have that. But then we get it anyway, which feels wrong.

I note in passing that none of the actors playing the wrestlers have tattoos, which seems improbable.


No comments: