The Philly Kid, 2012.
Directed by Jason Connery.
Starring Wes Chatham, Devon Sawa, Sarah Butler, Chris Browning, Lucky Johnson, Kristopher Van Varenburg, Neal McDonough, Adam Mervis and Michael Jai White.
SYNOPSIS:
After ten years in prison, former championship wrestler Dillon (Chatham) forces himself back into the fighting circuit in order to save the life of his best friend Jake (Sawa).
The Philly Kid bills itself as The Fighter meets Warrior. The most obvious link is that, yes, all three are about fighting. Two are about cage fighting. Two are about family. Unfortunately for The Philly Kid, it’s the only one that isn’t about family. It has characters that are technically family. But everything’s over so quickly that we don’t feel any family dynamics. We just see archetypes. Spoiler alert! The only prominent female character is the love interest!
We have our Main Character, Dillon. He was put in prison because of, I guess, the corrupt nature of cops combined with the idiocy of cops where the film is set. The opening scene reminded me of Con Air, in that an over the top scene plays out that inexplicably lays our protagonist in prison. While Con Air forgets reality by being an intentionally OTT action film, The Philly Kid flashes past prison (the film’s literally there for under a minute) in order to explain some of Dillon’s later prison-induced psychological issues, while demanding we buy into the drama of imprisonment. How can we do this when a ten year sentence for his part in a manslaughter is broken down to ’10 years later’?
This rushing also relates to the use of montages. I wouldn’t usually mention it, except this film has possibly the shortest montage in the history of cinema. In fact, I’m not sure it was a montage. Maybe our hero prepared for a cage fight for just going for a morning jog. Worked for my dad in the London marathon.
My point is, is that you can’t buy into the drama if everything’s breezed past. And in this movie, it left me with the strange situation of finding the supporting characters more engaging than the main ones. Maybe it was their idiosyncrasies. LA Jim (Neal McDonough) obviously has a history as soon as he limps on screen. And Ace (Lucky Johnson) has a quirky way with words (‘Two ways he’s rolling outta here. Dog food or my money.’ Okay, that’s not quirky that’s… nonsensical). I also feel I should add that Ace is a character who’s played by an actor who has a name that fits the character better. Lucky Johnson. Scrappy gangster from Louisiana. Doesn’t it just fit?
At this point, the plot holes start appearing. Jake owes money to Ace. Dillon offers to get the money in order to save Jake’s life. Ace surmises that Dillon having three fights will equate to the twenty thousand dollars he’s owed. I didn’t understand how Ace figured this out. And from there, plot holes are created not necessarily by one character’s actions, but by every characters seeming stupidity. But I guess it’s okay, because if you do one stupid thing in this movie’s universe, the person who’s been wronged won’t realise because they’re as thick as you. It’s like if me and my mates tried our hands at rocket science. We can all look like we know what we’re doing, but in the end everything will just blow up in our faces. Except we’re supposed to believe these gangsters, corrupt cops and cage fighters are experts. And they are. It’s just the genius is relative. The dialogue doesn’t help. It goes from the above-mentioned nonsensical lines to grating exposition, whilst in between I’m just sat there cringing.
The film does do well to give (brief) time to Dillon not knowing the world around him. The fact that he’s lost in this world shows how fortunate you have to be just to get by if you’ve just gotten out of a long-term prison sentence. And the corrupt nature of the setting, while probably not explained enough at the beginning, is depicted very well after the halfway mark. These two elements combine to really give a sense of Dillon being lost, even with the help of his best friend. The main source of corruption and pain to Dillon is played well enough, though his partner is reduced to being a sneering suck up.
Forgetting about engagement, you do root for Dillon, in a small ‘he’s the hero, I guess I have to’ kind of way. Linked to above, you feel the pressure put on him by Jake to make more and more money. You also feel for LA Jim as he’s forced into the impossible situation. Even though from the viewer’s point of view LA Jim is just the aged old pro… who jumps at the chance to take advantage of our main character’s psychological troubles. Jake himself runs very close to being unlikeable, but just about makes it.
The film looks good. The crooked town full of corruption amidst the clinging heat of Louisiana is very well depicted. There’s a slight leaning towards making the actors look more like models than cage fighters, which was probably down to the performances more than their overall look. The sound works for the most part, but there were points where levels dipped up and down for no reason, which took me out of the film just to ask why it was happening. And there’s a cartoon sound effect in the first two minutes that deserves a mention, purely because they could have gotten away with using no Foley at all.
The editing is obviously quick, with some scenes feeling rushed. It’s like the filmmakers didn’t want to linger on anything for any amount of time. That the film ends with a very long, dragging shot is made doubly strange because of what proceeded it. But they get away with it once they use the old school, 80s style end credits, which I feel need a revival. But the film needed to pick a couple of themes to concentrate on and stick with them. It felt like the film itself thought it was a chore, when if it was a bit more patient it could have been something great.
This film isn’t engaging enough. Stuff happens, but I didn’t care why. There were big problems with logic throughout. Things happened and I didn’t know why they were happening, or why the world worked like it did, but the film just breezed past these problems like they were nothing. And I think it’s all summarised by this question. Why is he The Philly Kid if he hasn’t ever left Louisiana?
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★
Matt Smith
