Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Brawler Blu-ray Movie Review

The Big Nothing-Comes-Easy

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 20, 2012

Brawler is director Chris Sivertson's follow-up to the much-reviled 2007 Lindsay Lohan vehicle I Know Who Killed Me, and if you weren't told otherwise, you'd wouldn't know the two films came from the same hand. The Lohan vehicle was a slick, studio-released creep-fest (or, at least, it tried to be), and while it's gained a cult status in the years since release, it was generally mocked for its overwrought atmosphere and ludicrous plot. Brawler has the look, though not the pace, of a Cassavetes film: rough, naturalistic, peopled with characters who express themselves more by behavior than by language, even when they're talking a lot. The difference is that Sivertson's characters don't explore themselves and each other in long, intense scenes of emotional unwrapping. They can't sit still long enough for such endeavors, because their very nature makes them too impatient. They live for excitement, whether from adrenaline, cocaine or general misbehavior.

Brawler purports to be based on true events, but the "truth" in this case is a story about battling brothers that star Nathan Grubbs heard from his father and told to his friend Marc Senter, a previous Sivertson collaborator. They brought the story to the director, who was sufficiently inspired to start writing the script, using New Orleans as a setting, because that's where the tale originated: in an illegal underground fight scene controlled by organized crime and followed with a passion by fans who bet huge sums on their favorites. Grubbs was an experienced boxer, and Senter had a black belt in karate, but both of them needed extensive additional training to play the two leads in a mixed martial arts arena quite unlike any in the legitimate world.

The two Fontaine brothers, Charlie the elder (Grubbs) and Bobby the younger (Senter), make a living (of sorts) competing in underground fight competitions sponsored by the mob on a boat in New Orleans harbor. As far as their former trainer, Rex Baker (Michael Bowen), is concerned, they might as well be fighting cocks. The rules of the mob's game are simple: anything goes (with a few minor exceptions like hair-pulling); the fighters' only protection is to wrap their hands; and the fight continues without interruption until one contestant either yields or is knocked down. It's part boxing, part wrestling, part barroom brawl—the closest thing the real world offers to Thunderdome.

Charlie's and Bobby's late father was also a boxer, but Rex says the old man would be sick if he could see what his sons are doing now. They seem more hooked on the excitement, and Bobby in particular more turned on by the macho posturing, than on mastery of the so-called "sweet science". They're happy to prolong the afterglow of victory with lines of cocaine, after which they carouse on Bourbon street singing the praises of the city they consider the greatest in the world. Bobby is even known to prepare for a match by banging a groupie in his dressing room. He doesn't believe in girlfriends, although Charlie is always accompanied by Kat (Pell James), whom he says he loves. But the scene in which she asks him "how much?" and he struggles for an answer suggests that Charlie and love may be an incompatible mix.

The brothers' situation begins to change when Charlie suffers a knee injury, though not in the ring. In search of a quieter life, he gives up fighting, takes a construction job and marries Kat. Charlie seems to be adjusting, but it's unclear whether Kat likes the new routine. Meanwhile, Bobby continues living the high life: fighting, dealing drugs, living for the moment, hustling local college students out of their cash, and not caring how much money he owes the crooks for whom he fights, because he figures he's too big an attraction for them to hurt (which shows just how dumb he really is). One night Bobby turns up on Charlie's and Kat's doorstep looking the worse for wear and needing a place to stay. Charlie takes him in because he's family, but it's only a matter of time before their incompatible trajectories cause them to collide. When they do, the explosion is audible throughout the neighborhood.

Being who they are, the brothers challenge each other to a riverboat fight. As Rex trains Charlie back into shape, bets are made all over town, and the mob slips Charlie a quiet word that his brother's debts are too big and his offenses are so numerous that it would be better if Bobby never left the ring. When the fight begins, all eyes are on the two brothers.

I've left out many colorful details, including an entire subplot involving a dandyish fight fan known as Fat Chucky (Mad Men's Bryan Batt), in part because of spoilers and in part because it's essential to Sivertson's narrative strategy to leave many of the story's peripheral elements half-explained. We don't learn a lot about Fat Chucky's connections or the whys and wherefores of what he does or what happens to him. We learn just enough to understand his place in the story, and he's played by an actor good enough to create the sense of a real person inhabiting the frame. But Sivertson remains tightly focused on the two brothers. Neither of them tells you who he is or how he became that way, but the camera keeps you staring at them until you feel like you've really come to know them, even when that isn't a comfortable sensation (and it often isn't).

Brawler’s fight scenes are intense and realistic, and Sivertson’s camera gets in close, especially during the brothers’ extended match. No stunt doubles could be used, because these scenes are about character as much as action. Fighting is the essence of who Charlie and Bobby Fontaine are. Listen carefully to Charlie’s story about finding an old videotape of his father boxing, and the explanation is all there.

Brawler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I have been unable to confirm the shooting format of Brawler. The cinematographer, Zoran Popovic, shot another film entitled Shiver the same year on the Red system. While the Red is capable of enormous flexibility in post-production, especially in the hands of skilled technicians in a digital intermediate suite, Brawler's visual texture looks more like that of film origination (even 16mm film in some of the softer shots). Whatever its origins, the Image on XLrator Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is clear and detailed. Even in darker spaces where the image detail fades with the darkness, it's apparent that the threshold where detail begins to vanish has been deliberately chosen.

Brawler favors a desaturated palette, especially in evening and night scenes, and it's obviously intended to convey the down 'n' dirty world of the Fontaine brothers' shadowy fighting pursuits. Even during the day, however, colors are muted, so much so that an occasionally strong color stands out, e.g., the green garden of older brother Charlie's "real" home. There are few scenes with deep black, but one of them is a fancy dress party, where Charlie secures the brothers an evening of "legitimate" catering work, and younger brother Bobby misbehaves. Take Bobby out of the murky world of illegal boxing and into a place with a dress code, and his reverse snobbery kicks into high gear.

The Blu-ray appears to have been sourced from digital files from the DI, which eliminates any issues of high frequency filtering or digital sharpening. At 84 minutes with virtually no extras, compression artifacts were not an issue.

Brawler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track uses the surrounds for ambiance, with an occasional strong effect in the rear for a special impact. One memorable example is a knock at the door that initiates a critical sequence (you'll know it when it comes). The lossless track also does full justice to the New Orleans/Cajun soundtrack by Tim Rutili, with original songs written and performed by Howlin Rain and Armand St. Martin, among others. The music never lets you forget where you are.

Brawler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra is the film's trailer (HD, 1080p; 2.35:1; 2:14). At startup the disc plays trailers (in 1080p) for Assassin's Bullet, Blood Money, Age of the Dragons and Greystone Park. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Brawler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Boxing and battling brothers are not an unfamiliar combination in the movies. Most recently, David O. Russell's The Fighter told the true story of the battling Ward brothers and their extended family, in which the women proved to be even tougher than the men. Brawler is distinguished by its simplicity and the narrowness of its focus. Women are almost secondary in this tale's fraternal conflict, which has the primal force of Cain and Abel. Recommended.