Festival Movie Review - 'Knuckle Draggers'

Knuckle Draggers Starring Ross McCall, Paul J. Alessi, and Amie Barsky Directed by Alex Ranarivelo Not Rated

As long as there have been movies, there have been movies about relationships. One of the very first films to play for an paying audience was The Kiss, which was a 47-second smooch made in 1896. It was quite controversial at the time. Obviously, the form handles love in broader terms now, with romantic comedies and dramas of every stripe, and even the majority of action films have some love interest. It does make the world go 'round, they say. Working outside the mainstream, the adult romantic comedy Knuckle Draggers examines men and women, but mostly men. In particular, how men work in and out of relationships, how they deal with women, and how their attitudes can be shaped by their male friends. Ethan (Ross McCall) has just been dumped. His beautiful girlfriend (Jennifer Alden) is tired of waiting for the life she wants, even though Ethan is working towards a dream she should have long since understood. He's devastated but his brother Kyle (Paul J. Alessi) sees this as an opportunity to mold a new Kyle out of his brother. I think we've all known a Kyle, a guy who goes through life barreling through women five or six at a time, conquering but never achieving anything. That's not exactly who you want as your corner man in this kind of fight, or at least, not in the real world. Ethan wants his old life back, but Kyle convinces him to play the field first. It doesn't help. Of course, Kyle may not be everything (or the one thing) he makes himself out to be, either, so that casts even more doubt on his sage advice. He believes, and cites university studies to the effect, that man and women are the same beasts now they were before the dawn of civilization, and that the same things motivate them in relation to the opposite sex. I liked the frank discussions not only about relationships but also their participants. Most of the film's better moments take flight when we focus on where these people have gone wrong, whether by their own hand or not. But there are just too many characters in Knuckle Draggers. It's a common flaw of independent filmmakers, in my opinion, that rather than devoting their time to four primaries, we get seven or eight. Yeah, they all have character arcs in this case - so kudos to writer-director Alex Ranarivelo for fitting them in - but it's just a bit too much for such a personal story. It's not even that the ancillary characters don't have things to offer, but rather that the point can be made more effectively, and usually is, when the stories are more efficient. Having said that, the top seven or eight performances in Knuckle Draggers are all convincing, and you usually don't see that due to the checkbook constraints and shooting schedules for low budget films. In particular, McCall, Alessi, and Amie Barsky do good work, and there's one great scene between Omar Gooding and Danielle Nicolet that steals the show. Knuckle Draggers has played a series of film festivals this weekend, and I was asked to give it a review for the ReelHeART International Film Festival in Toronto, where it was selected as the closing night film this weekend. Paul Alessi picked up the Best Actor award at the festival, incidentally. If it comes your way this summer or fall, you should give it a shot. Not only is it well-written and entertaining, but for filmmakers just getting their start, it's a great example of the options that are out there for you. It may not look as polished as a big studio picture about the same thing, but it has a point, never strays from it, and shows real signs of life, particularly once the story hits its stride.

Comments

[Wendy Shepherd]

Nice write up! I enjoyed reading your view of Knuckle Draggers. :)