Bleed for This (2. Bleed for This Movie Review & Film Summary (2. Miles Teller plays Vinny Paz, aka Pazienza, aka The Pazmanian Devil, an Italian- American junior welterweight fighter from Rhode Island. He's a likable, young, working class guy who doesn't take the sport as seriously as he should. He barely makes weight and stays out all night before fights blowing his money on gambling. His domineering dad (Ciaran Hinds) hooks him up with legendary trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart), one of the wizards who helped channel Mike Tyson's rage. It's Rooney who recommends that Paz move up one weight class, a bold move. Everyone else in Paz's circle (including his manager Lou Duva, played by gravel- voiced character actor Ted Levine, who's never looked worse or more weirdly compelling) thinks it's a bad idea. Bleed For This (2016) TrailerBut it turns out to be a stroke of genius. Paz becomes not just a winner but a sensation, beating champ Roberto Duran (Edwin Rodriguez, radiating intelligence and focus) and priming himself for stardom. Advertisement. Then he gets blindsided by life: a car slams into him head- on as he's driving to the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut and throws his vehicle into a ditch. His spine is damaged. He has to wear a . The doctor tells him not only will he never fight again, he'll probably never walk again. Undaunted, Paz charms Rooney into undertaking a secret training regimen in his parents' basement, and the film becomes a recovery story. The emphasis is mainly on what the injury does to Paz's body, and how he manages and transcends the pain: a mind- over- matter narrative. The problem, though, is that we never get enough sense of Paz's interior life to judge this movie as anything other than a comeback story about a nice guy who got knocked out by the cosmos and hauled himself up. Its modesty is welcome, and its deep knowledge of boxing pictures and sports weepies helps the story glide along. Still, there's a deeper, more powerful tale here that remains frustratingly untapped, maybe because the film knows that if it got too messy, contradictory or raw, it would lose the . But if you think of . The direction, the photography, the editing, the production design and most of the performances are on point. And there are ways in which . We get more journalistic details than pictures like this often provide: the scene- setting driving shots of Providence and leafy surrounding counties, the texture of the wood paneled walls in characters' homes, the cigarettes they smoke, the beer they drink, and the cadence of their talk, which often revolves around men expressing love by busting each other's chops. Too many boxing films downplay the fragility of the body, unless a hero is being warned that if he keeps fighting, he'll go blind or suffer brain damage (he always disregards the warning and wins anyway). The middle section of . We see Paz sneaking into the basement, gingerly sliding onto his weight bench, and trying to bench- press a barbell he hasn't touched in years, then removing weight after weight until only the bar remains. The first rule of rehab is . But the movie has major problems. The biggest is Teller, a committed and likable actor miscast as Paz. You're aware of how hard he must have worked to get in shape, sell the accent, get the demeanor right, and so on, but he's never wholly credible as the hero. This performance feels built from without, not found within. Teller lacks the affable meathead quality that made Mark Wahlberg so compelling in . He's just right in films like . He's bouncy, even chirpy, verging on Tom Hanks or John Cusack in light- comic- lead mode, and while he gets certain signatures right in the ring (such as Paz's whirligig punch) the editing and camerawork often seem to be doing too much of the work for him (when he throws a flurry of combinations, he looks like he's dog- paddling). To be fair, the writing and filmmaking are probably as much at fault as Teller—actors are only as good as their collaborators and their material—but it's a debilitating strike against the movie. The supporting cast, though, is flawless, especially Katey Sagal as Paz's mom, who listens to fights from the next room because she can't bear to watch her boy get hit on TV, and Eckhart, whose transformation into Rooney is both emotionally and physically complete. He seems to have made himself shorter and changed his bone structure, which is not something they teach you at Stella Adler. When his character appeared onscreen for the first time, I mistook him for Dean Norris. Watch the Bleed for This - Official Trailer (2016). Based on the inspirational true story of one of sport's most incredible comebacks, the film follows. Teller can't keep up with any of them. He's a promising junior welterweight, and this is a heavyweight cast. Advertisement. The frame the movie puts around Paz's comeback is iffy, too. BaylorFans.com is holding an NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket Contest for only Baylor fans that are registered members on the Message Board. How to Stop a Nose Bleed. Nose bleeds, also known as epistaxis, are a common complaint which can occur spontaneously. Nose bleeds occur when the inner lining of one's. Bleed for This movie info - movie times, trailers, reviews, tickets, actors and more on Fandango. Ever wondered how to bleed your car's brakes? Get step-by-step instructions from Car and Driver. It's unabashed in telling us that Paz reset his life through optimism, stubbornness and hard work. There's no denying Paz's achievement, but it's one rarely shared by people who've suffered massive physical trauma, and it would've been nice if the film had acknowledged that. As is, there are scenes and moments (particularly during Paz's closing interview, a bewildering mistake) where . That surely wasn't the point, but it's what comes across, and it gives what might otherwise have been a pretty good, occasionally inspired sports movie a sour aftertaste.
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