A hard-hitting drama with a great cast and performances, Nick Sarkisov's Embattled largely
flew under the radar due to its unfortunate release date at the height
of the pandemic. Its grittiness -- reminiscent of the boldness of 1970s
American cinema -- and story set in an environment not often explored in
film should make it your next movie to watch, especially if you have a good dramatic piece in mind.
Cash
Boykins (Stephen Dorff) is an aggressive, abrasive, sexist and
homophobic MMA champion, who had abandoned his family years earlier. Having
renewed contact with his older son Jett (Darren Mann) while completely
disregarding his younger son with Williams Syndrome, Quinn (Colin McKenna), Cash starts training Jett and helping him fulfill his own ambition
of becoming a fighter. Circumstances eventually lead to a clash that
threatens the family even further -- a furiously promoted and anticipated
yet immoral fight between father and son...
The
movie makes good points about toxic family relationships, father-son
dynamics and the MMA business exploiting its fighters. Scenes involving
the business side are engaging not only because they show a different
side of Cash -- as horrid of a human being as he is to his own
family, he paradoxically truly cares about his fellow fighters and their
financial well-being -- but also because they examine the workings of a sport that we rarely see represented within this medium. Mixed martial arts is most likely the only career option for
many individuals and, just like in any other type of entertainment
industry, the people that come into this sport are at the mercy of
higher corporate powers. Although I understand that this is not Embattled's centerpiece, I wish that there had been more content about the business itself and Cash's disputes with the higher-ups.
The
family relationships and characters are well fleshed out.
The scene where someone suddenly recalls an unspeakable
event and suffers a near-breakdown is one of the most effective
moments, as is the Welcome to Holland sequence and the phone call toward the end. The script successfully depicts the poison of family abuse and
indifference, how it affects generations and the toll that it takes on
children.
An intriguing aspect of Embattled is the way that it pays a lot of attention to social issues and weaves them expertly into the main story. It surmises toxic masculinity perfectly in the sequence where Cash is watching
Quinn play a video game, in hateful disbelief that this is his son. It
also manages to point its finger at stigma with Cash making an
assumption about Quinn's feelings, but also with his ex-wife's assumption about her upcoming date. These are issues and relatable struggles that I wish more movies would tackle or at least incorporate
into their narratives.
I
also need to mention the fight scenes, which are as authentic as they
come. The final scene in particular is brutal in a number of ways. It is a bloody, messy, merciless conflict that naturally goes much deeper than a cage match. The emotions and confrontations between Cash and Jett and Quinn, between Cash and Susan, the past, the violence... it all comes to a head in the final fight. The result is a breathless sight of pure, unrelenting intensity and the finality of this tattered family's tragedy. Kudos
goes to all of the actors involved for what they have achieved. I should also mention the beautiful, austere cinematography by Paul Özgür, which contributes to Embattled's realism.
The
performances are excellent. Mann is a picture of affection and strength
that strives beyond perfection due to his cruel father. McKenna gives a great performance as the
sensitive and neglected son. Elizabeth Reaser is very good as
Cash's ex-wife and the boys' struggling mother, while Ava Capri and
Karrueche Tran are exceptional as Jett's smart love interest and Cash's principled and assertive second wife, respectively.
The
standout, however, is Dorff, who has never encountered a role that he could not play. He transforms into an absolute beast of a man, both in
terms of physicality and Cash's seriously warped psyche. Having grown up with an
abusive father himself, Cash knows no other way to be with his sons. The issue
is, he does not even care to know, because he firmly believes that no
other parenting philosophy is right and that they would turn out unforgivably
"soft" if he treated them any other way. He sees no problem with insulting
his son with special needs and sees no qualms with almost beating his
other son to death in the cage because, from his standpoint, a man is only a man
if he possesses a "kill or be killed" attitude. In short, violence is his main language and Dorff taps into the damaged mindset to perfection.
The actor does find a
trace of vulnerability in Cash's demeanor, though; a note which permeates
a number of sequences and which postulates that this might have become a very
different person if his upbringing had been nurturing.
His last scene with Tran shows a man who is desperately trying to hang on to every
bit of love that he can get and desperately trying to hide this yearning at the same
time, and his very last scene is a true sensation, with Cash traversing a
spectrum of emotions in less than a minute. On another note, his scenes with the MMA bigwigs show a businessman who is shrewd and uncompromising about his job, the same traits that unfortunately get translated as callousness to people who are supposed to be his nearest and dearest. It is a performance for the ages.
Embattled is an example of a realistic drama that does not get made often anymore. It is a cue to filmmakers to pay more attention to the human heart and the creative side of cinema, because one never knows what kind of narrative could burst out of a unique and empathetic idea. It could be a tale about a brutish MMA fighter, about a tender brotherly relationship, about a fractured family... or it could be all of the above in an underrated, meaningful and affecting movie.
9/10