FILM: Lamotta: The Bronx Bull
DIRECTOR: Martin Guigui
RATING: 6/10
Typically biopics are my least favorite films to watch. They usually feel disjointed and rushed, hurrying to cover a wide scope of the protagonist's life. The endings are always contrived--can you believe he actually learned this important thing at this exact time and it conveniently brought his life great meaning as he himself came full circle!!! And the genre-required old-age makeup is always deadly. I don't usually enjoy biopics and I can't really recall a time that I've ever watched one more than once. But here I am today with LaMotta: The Bronx Bull. Having just watched this movie twice in a row, I'm struggling to express why. It isn't a great film. I didn't love it. It didn't bring me great clarity or illuminate a great truth. In fact, I know nothing about the world of boxing so this film may be an absolute piece of garbage when it comes to facts and history. But from where I sit, it's a portrait of a womanizing boxer who accepts his imperfections, doesn't ever really try to change himself and just lives his life with occasional wins and even more occasional losses. It doesn't feel sugar coated or glamourized--it actually is a really gritty, ugly movie. But I felt like I knew the world a little bit better, and that by the end I had a greater understanding of the man at the center. Bonus: Cloris Leachman and Penelope Miller showing up in the third act was an unexpected pleasure!
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