This one seems appropriate coming off a recent visit to Cardiff and witnessing a match many critics have touted as a match of the year candidate.
So let's dip into some lighthearted jovial fun with the king of happiness in the director's chair with:
THE WRESTLER (2008 dir. Darren Aronofsky)
'The Raging Bull of Wrestling Movies'...considering at this point, the competition consisted of No Holds Barred and Ready To Rumble...
Why I bought it/Why I liked it:
If there were seven words I could only use to describe my interests they would be the following:
Food. Films. Music. Comics. Video Games. Wrestling.
It's always hard to admit you're a wrestling fan to other people. Often you'll get a snort of derision and the often common 'You know it's fake right?'. To which I'll reply, 'No, I think you'll find that fights often go 20 solid minutes with suplexes and shooting star presses...'
Wrestling to me is like a good action sequence in a movie when it's well-choreographed, it's an absolute thing of beauty. It's telling a story and you know you're in a good one when you get sucked in and you don't know who could win. In the day of the internet where we all become 'wrestling experts', that becomes more difficult as we know that the more marketable star will mostly always 'win' his matches and we become cynical and uninterested.
Backstage, the stars behind the camera and the goings-on are just as if not MORE interesting that what happens when the cameras start rolling. Infidelity, drug-taking, pranks, it's like the ultimate gossip magazine. Accounts have been told by various wrestlers of things that have happened and I find them all absolutely riveting.
I first caught the wrestling bug in late '91 when I wanted to be mates at school with a kid called Tyler. He was into it, so it stood to reason I should be into it too. With the advent of cable, the WWF became accessible with larger than life characters kicking each other's butts for a six-year-olds entertainment.
When Sky Sports eventually had to be pulled due to its expense, so too did my interest in wrestling. I was 7 at the time, you could have dangled a piece of string and I'd have been interested, such was my attention span back then. Fast forward to 1999, I wanted to be friends with a boy named Chris, who was into wrestling, so I got back into wrestling, this time for keeps. (Subsequently, I'm still friends with Chris and was best man at his wedding, so that worked out rather well.)
The Attitude era had sucked me in but I was here to stay, soon magazines, videos, DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs of entrance music, books and not just the WWF/WWE. Puro, Lucha, British, Independents, anything I could get my hands on essentially. 20 years on, I've amassed a huge collection and some of my closest friends through wrestling.
So it stood to reason that I'd want to watch a seriously made film about wrestling. Previously most efforts had a humorous tone to them and the only well made films were often documentaries about the subject. Not only was it a film that featured wrestling but it also got good reviews, I, of course, had to check it out and subsequently add it to the collection.
Borrowing elements from the excellent documentary 'Beyond The Mat' about the crashing reality of when a superstar in wrestling's career goes on a downturn but still needs to make money. The movie is a quite accurate description of some wrestler's lives when all they have left is to make ends meet in the ring, far past their prime, an addiction to pain-killers a sore reminder of what they gave their bodies up for.
No, it's not an uplifting tale, but by god was it well made.
Oh and Marisa Tomei's in it. My god, she's gorgeous.
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
Oh yeah.
As depressing as the subject matter gets, it's still an amazing film to watch, A phenomenal performance by Mickey Rourke (who I always felt should have won the Oscar for this) and the supporting cast in Marisa and Evan Rachel Wood.
That and The Boss donates a song to it. It's Aronofsky's most accessible film by far. I'll just need a comedy or something afterwards to perk up the mood afterwards...
So let's get down to the adventures of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson...
The review:
Well, it moved me as much this time as perhaps it did the first time.
The Wrestler isn't really a film you break out when you want to lighten the mood or just have on in the background for ambient noise. This is, however, a wonderful example of storytelling with some superb acting throughout, taking the viewer along on an emotional ride.
It's sad to see Randy's spiral down the drain as we watch him grift on 'small' indy shows on the weekend while hauling heavy goods in a supermarket behind the scenes. That being said some of those 'small' indy shows consist of CZW and ROH so feasibly he should have been paid better than he was.
Rourke is magnificent in his performance here, quiet and contemplative at times realizing the situation he's in but aware that there's no real way out. His voice cracking at times under the strain of pain he's suffered both physically and mentally, it's difficult to have envisioned the first choice, Nicolas Cage putting in such a performance.
I'd felt the same after enduring 9 hours of Unreleased Hulk Hogan matches at the time...
All joking and perving aside, Marisa Tomei proves why she's an excellent actress putting in the portrayal of a working mother, stripping simply to make a better life for her son and herself while she's still got the body and moves to do so, not content to work a simple 9 to 5. I sympathise with that although the scene where some young lads on a stag night want a 'hotter' dancer is implausible considering she's easily the hottest thing in the club other than the flaming sambucas...
Evan Rachel Wood simply plays her role great as the wronged daughter, neglected by her father for so long and hurt when she lets him back into her life, only to be let down again, she doesn't have much to do but she does it well when she has to.
Ultimately when all is said and done, it's sad to see that despite warnings that he might die if he has one more match, the call of the ring is too much for him to ignore. Despite all the pain medication and hardcore drug use, his body has taken, wrestling is the strongest drug of all.
Geez, thanks Darren, you've made me all sombre now. Maybe I'll just stick on One Foot In The Algarve now instead. Regardless, you made a damn good film sir.
Should it stay or should it go?
It's a keeper. I doubt it'll get revisited in say, the next couple of years, (other than to remind myself what Marisa Tomei's nipples look like), but the Wrestler does remain as strong a piece of cinema as it was when it first came out. A terrific 9 out of 10 and still indeed a better film than No Holds Barred.
Until next time, I remain,
Matt Major.
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