Directed by Ben Younger – Starring Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart

Based on the true story of boxer Vinny Pazienza as he fights to hold onto his career while dealing with devastating injuries and the pressures around him.

The movie knows exactly what kind of story it’s telling and leans into it, and that focus is what makes it work for me.

I’m not usually the biggest fan of biopics, but this one zeroes in on a specific stretch of Pazienza’s life — and tells a story I wasn’t that familiar with — which is more my speed.

This is a pretty compelling film about perseverance, told through the lens of a boxing movie. It also becomes a look at human endurance and how far someone can push themselves through sheer force of will.

What really makes this land for me are the performances.

Miles Teller is excellent here. He brings intensity, but also a kind of stubbornness that makes the character feel real. There’s an authenticity to him. He’s not a hero that’s easy to root for — he’s imperfect — and Teller handles that really well. There’s a case to be made that he’s one of the more underrated actors working right now.

Aaron Eckhart is almost unrecognizable. There’s a roughness to his performance that fits the world of the film, especially compared to the kinds of roles he usually plays. He works really well opposite Teller.

There are also some solid supporting turns from Ted Levine, Ciarán Hinds — who maybe doesn’t quite land the Rhode Island accent, but gives it a real effort — and Katey Sagal, all of whom help fill out the world without pulling focus.

It doesn’t really do anything new with the sports biopic formula, but it doesn’t need to. What it does, it does well. The boxing sequences are strong, and the story is engaging enough that I found myself fully invested.

By the end, it’s hard not to root for Vinny Pazienza, which means the movie did exactly what it set out to do.

Verdict: Engaging