Bruiser

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Norman B Outstanding cinematography, music, and acting. Unfortunately the films ending will leave a lot to be desired. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/28/24 Full Review Madeline K Incredible! So sensitively done. Fabulous writing and acting and directing. And amazing cinematography. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/16/23 Full Review Wayne M Bruiser is an immensely powerful film about manhood, fatherhood and toxic masculinity. It's poetic and brutal, a very impressive film from director Miles Warren. Darious is a teenage boy living with his parents. He has friends but is also bullied. His father Malcolm is a solid citizen but is also a strong disciplinarian which Darious struggles with. One day Darious comes across Porter, seemingly a drifter who lives by the river. Porter is cool and engaging. He rides a motorcycle and likes cool music. Darious is enamoured with him and finds a connection there that he doesn't have with Malcolm. But there is back story between Malcolm and Porter which drives a stake in all the relationships. This superb film explores what it is to be a father and how to mentor responsibly, whilst also examining the growth of a teenage boy. There is growing brutality in this film as it reaches an explosive point. But there is also a poetry aided by a resonant music score. Performances are note perfect and honest, especially Jalyn Hall as Darious. This might be a small film in stature but it's undoubtedly a highly impressive one in scope. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/19/23 Full Review Michelle W Excellent. One of the best movies I've seen in years. Edge of my seat at times. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/11/23 Full Review John K It's well-acted and it's compelling for most of it. It lost me in the final quarter, when there was a time for characters to each speak their mind, or for us to have flashbacks, something to give us a more human picture of how the grown folks got the way they are. It's true that we can be emotionally neglected and even abandoned by our parents, but when the parents are not only physically present but emotionally making effort, it seems unfair to write that off with little insight. Even D is something of a cypher, which may be realistic but is rather bleak. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/03/23 Full Review Nakia N I feel like this movie attacks toxic masculinity in the black community, but seemed to show very little interest in the root causes of such behavior. The film showed very little interest in showing how someone dealing with anger issues can actually truly change and grow rather than either run away from their past or cover it up only for it to boil back to the top in the end. I was very disappointed that both men in the end were reduced to being violent animals with no emotional maturity or sense that they have grown or learned anything in their 15 yrs of life since being teens. There was room for so much more. Why couldn't they speak on what happened as teens beating down the boy, speak on their mutual traumas, how it affected them. When they had already fought and both are there battered and bruised there is an opportunity for that and instead the 2 grown men just continue to fight like animals and the 13 yr old boy ends up having to make the adult decision that up until that point the boys father (not biological) seemed perfectly capable of making. The rational decision that their fighting was pointless, and solved nothing. His words prior showed he had grown. Even his wife believed so, telling him he isn't the only one capable of changing. I just didn't like that it depicted the father preaching growth and that he had learned from his past to his son, but then in the end he is made to be a liar and a hypocrite. I immediately knew with the ending without knowing that the director would be a g*y black male (suspicions confirmed watching interviews). The ending felt like such an attack on straight black men and almost like a verification that the stereotypes society place on us about what we are incapable of are all true. Such a missed opportunity to show the evils of toxic masculinity and then pivot to at least displaying possibilities of there being a path towards overcoming tragedies of your past. Disappointed 😞 Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Bruiser

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