There are a few genres that reliably get the term “Oscar bait” tossed at them come awards season: biopics of important figures, epic historical dramas, movies about disabilities or the Holocaust, etc. However, there’s a particular kind of movie that escapes this treatment despite a history of Oscar glory: fighting movies with a desperate edge. “Rocky,” “Warrior,” “Creed,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Fighter,” “Raging Bull,” “Cinderella Man,” and “Ali” have all garnered at least one Academy Award nomination, and it’s rare for one of these films to slip by unnoticed.
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In that tradition, “Donnybrook,” which played at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, tells an important story through the lens of fighting, but unlike any of the previously mentioned films; the sport feels almost incidental to the plot in comparison to the other problems the characters face because the reality here is much more grim and brutal. Written and directed by Tim Sutton (“Pavilion,” “Dark Night”) and adapted from the book by Frank Bill, “Donnybrook” addresses “an America ignored by many Americans,” one plagued by PTSD, the opiate epidemic, and poor healthcare. It’s not boxing, it’s essentially fight clubs so people can get by.
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You can read the synopsis below.
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Earl (Jamie Bell) and Angus (Frank Grillo) both inhabit society’s fringes. Their similarity stops there. “Jarhead Earl” is a veteran, husband, and father of two. His cancer-stricken wife needs expensive treatment, leading him to commit crimes that go against his nature. “Chainsaw Angus,” on the other hand, runs a local meth ring with his sister, Delia (Margaret Qualley). Having long suffered his emotional and physical beatings, she is looking for any way out. With the well-intentioned — if a little corrupt and a lot drunk — local sheriff (James Badge Dale) hot on their tails, the two men are destined to meet at the Donnybrook, where the last man standing in a bare-knuckle cage fight takes home a cash prize of $100,000. Though faced with a succession of miserable choices, Earl fights bravely for his family’s future. Having left a trail of death and destruction in his wake, Angus fights to quench an unspecified thirst for revenge.
Whether or not “Donnybrook” goes the way of the bare-knuckle brawling movies before it, it should at least deliver one of the most visceral experiences the genre has ever had (and hell, our reviewer loved it). “Donnybrook” screened the Toronto International Film Festival, and Fantastic Fest during the fall film festival circuit last year. It’s set for release via IFC Films on February 15 theatrically and hits VOD on February 22.
