Warrior (2011) - O'Connor's superbly acted MMA drama packs emotional fireworks

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4 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Actor: Joel Edgerton (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Supporting Actor: Nick Nolte (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Practical Effects (lost to Haywire)

 

 

+ Best Boxing Movie of the Year

 

Stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton flash commendable physiques on this poster for Gavin O'Connor's Warrior

 

Two alienated brothers, who are both estranged from their newly sober alcoholic father enter for each their own reasons into heavy training for a coming, big MMA tournament.

Joel Edgerton (Black Mass (2015))) is excellent as the physics teacher, who fights to keep his family's home, - with a very different strength than Tom Hardy (Child 44 (2015)), who fights on pure hate and gives a very strong and frightening performance in Warrior. In the middle is Nick Nolte (The Good Thief (2002)), who is heartbreaking as their improved father that returns to them hat-in-hand, wishing for a relationship with his now adult sons.

If you are an MMA enthusiast or like martial arts generally, the fights towards the end of Warrior are fantastic in themselves. As such, however, this is a powerfully and soberly staged film that lives on its story of brothers at odds, which reaches mythical heights. It is written by Anthony Tambakis (Jane Got a Gun (2016)), Cliff Dorfman (Entourage (2005), TV-series) and great New-Yorker co-writer-director Gavin O'Connor (The Accountant (2016)), whose 5th feature it is.

 

Related posts:

 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Listen to the song by The National About Today here, which is featured in the film

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 23.3 mil. $

= Huge flop

[Warrior was released September 9 and runs 140 minutes. Hardy went into heavy training for the part, gaining 28 pounds (13 kg), which he retained for his performance in The Dark Knight Rises. Filming took place in and around April 2009 in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California. The film opened #3, behind newcomer Contagion and holdover hit The Help, to a 5.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 the following week and grossed 13.6 mil. $ (58.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2.8 mil. $ (12 %) and 2.1 mil. $ (9%). Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars, equal to a notch harder than this review. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Supporting Actor (Nolte), which it lost to Christopher Plummer in Beginners. It has won more popularity over time and now rests at #149 (between Sunrise/Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)) on IMDb's user-generated Top 250. Warrior is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Warrior?

Moneyball (2011) - Miller makes compelling baseball movie history

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+ Best Sports Movie of the Year

Brad Pitt portrays Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane in Bennett Miller's Moneyball

Billy Beane is the man tasked with getting the free-falling Oakland Athetics baseball team back in winning shape without more money in a sport that has acquired ballooned monster budgets. Together with an economist, Beane finds a new way to play - and win - ball.

Even if you don't understand baseball, (which I can't profess that I do), Moneyball works. Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List (1993)) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing (1999-06)) wrote the Oscar-nominated script, based on Michael Lewis' (The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (2006)) non-fiction book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), and great New York-director Bennett Miller (Capote (2005)) has made a great film out of it.
Beane's struggle and his gamble is staged with high stakes, and, of course, the core story of getting a team of outcasts to start winning, against all odds, is gripping material. Solid work marks Moneyball's production, led by a perfectly cast, Oscar-nominated Brad Pitt (Troy (2004)). The cast also includes fine turns from Oscar-nominated Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)), Chris Pratt (Jurassic World (2015)) as an unsure player, Spike Jonze (Three Kings (1999)), and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt (2008)), who is good as usual, as the team's dissatisfied coach.

Related posts:

Bennett Miller: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Capote (2005) - The writing of one of the 20th century's finest non-fiction crime novels comes to life

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 110.2 mil. $
= Flop
[Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Lewis' book in 2004. Pitt committed to the film in 2007, and Steven Soderbergh was about to direct the film in 2009, when, days before shooting was scheduled to start, Sony put production on hold and got Miller in instead of Soderbergh for a summer 2010 shoot. Moneyball premiered at Toronto and was warmly reviewed, making many especially American Top 10 lists of the year and 6 Oscar nominations: For Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Sound Mixing. - It won none. The film followed its 19.5 mil. $ domestic opening weekend to a 75.6 mil. $ gross (68.6 % of the total gross.) Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan (11.4 mil. $/10.3 %) and Australia (5.3 mil. $/4.8 %). Moneyball is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Moneyball?