Customer Reviews

Fighting Tommy Riley

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

FIGHTING TOMMY RILEY has so many things going for it that it is amazing it didn't do well in the box office. Perhaps audiences are tired of 'boxing movies' ('Million Dollar Baby' sort of usurped that position for a while), but this is not a typical boxing movie: Fighting Tommy Riley takes risks all over the place and that is what helps make it so fine.

Written by J.P. Davis who also plays the title role, the story is less about Tommy Riley than it is about his trainer Marty Goldberg (long-established fine character actor Eddie Jones): this is not a self promoting Rocky/Sylvester Stallone story, fine as that films series was. For a first time writer and actor and directed by first time director Eddie O'Flaherty and cast with unknowns except for Eddie Jones, this film is a 'knockout' (pardon the pun).

Tommy Riley is a young and gifted boxer on the skids, disillusioned by his loss at an attempt at the Olympic trials, an unfortunate lapse of self-confidence that has destroyed his relationship with his girl Stephanie (Christina Chambers) and forced him to do menial labor just to survive. Concurrently we meet Marty Goldberg, an obese, has been trainer who left the ring because of a dark demon he harbors and has turned to teaching high school English. Marty lives with his dog Lucy in squalor, surrounded by the many books he reads and quotes, memorabilia of a ruined career, and sleeping pills. His one friend is feisty Diane Stone (Diane Taylor) who Marty salvaged some time ago from her own downward plunge. Diane is a boxing promoter looking for a client. When Marty and Diane and Tommy collide the beginning of a vigorous training life begins and each of the three gains a resurgence of self-respect.

Both Tommy and Marty carry a load of baggage demons that eventually surface and as Tommy slowly builds as a fighter ready for competition, Marty's devotion to the kid's career becomes more than professional and an unfortunate but inevitable encounter changes their path toward glory. With Diane's promotion Tommy gains the recognition of big time promoter Riley (Scot Belsky) and Tommy is torn between the promise of fame and wealth and his emotional commitment to Marty: his initial impulse to go with Riley (which is contingent on leaving Marty as a trainer) is met with resistance until Marty humbly encourages Tommy to go for his career rather than his obligation to Marty. The result of Tommy's decision tells the story of the film and to reveal it would be unfair.

Eddie Jones and JP Davis are absolutely superb is these very demanding roles. Rarely as a film about sports been influenced by the presence of sexual preferences, and Eddie Jones handles this enigmatic characteristic with extreme sensitivity and makes us all feel his anguish at the slings that life has thrown his way. And the manner in which Davis finesses both the initial advances from Jones and then gradually alters his response in understanding Jones' behavior is nothing short of miraculous acting. Director O'Flaherty has created a brilliant little film from Davis' fine script and one can only hope there will be more collaborations as excellent as this.

The cinematography (Michael Fimognari) and musical score (Lee Sanders and Tim Simonec) keep the mood of the film flowing. Bravo to all concerned not only for a fine story well done, but alos for the courage to focus on sub rosa sexual themes with all the sensitivity this film represents. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, July 05

Ok, first, to deal with the two one-star reviews...

Obviously someone missed the point of the film. This isn't a buddy flick, this isn't a "and they all lived happily ever after" flick, this is first and foremost a film about two people who for whatever reason have not been given the love they feel life should sent their way.

The Professor isn't just "chester the molester", and he didn't bring Tomy to the cabin "to seduce him". Sometimes straight and gay guys can be friends, and sometimes unfortunate things happen between those friends. The Professor was hardly a sexual predator, and Tommy was not some hapless rape victim; you don't spend months of time and a heck of a lot of cash just to get some cute and straight twinkie into bed. This was a serious relationship initially founded on boxing, then founded on a really amazing give and take between the two.

That mistake, and the fact that Tommy was going nowhere even with a million bucks hanging in the balance, was a testament to the bond these men shared. Not as "older gay guy drooling over younger sexy straight guy", but a genuine bond between two men with a common goal and the desire to actually be friends.

Tommy threw himself at the Professor, not because he wanted to "give in", but because he was afraid of being left alone again by people he cared about. He was so desperate to not move forward without the Professor that he would do anything to make sure the one person in his life who actually cared about him wouldn't leave (well, ok, say anything). Did either man make the smartest decision, no. But that's life, and it's obvious that both were devasated by the later decisions made.

Now, for the rest of the review, which will be short. It was an excellent film. JP Davis, the star, wrote the film, and I have to say that his ability to handle sensitive material really impressed me. The film was gritty, real, intelligent, and moving. Which of course means that when the time comes, it will be completely ignored by the Academy. I saw a lot of myself in the character of Tommy, and as a gay martial artist, I am well aware of the fighting community and its "skeletons in the closet".

Kudos for this film being made. I'd left it on the shelf for the longest time because, like many, "Million Dollar Baby" was my boxing film of the year. But in its own way, this was just as good.

I'd have to say that while I really liked "Rocky", my current top boxing flicks would have to be "Baby", "Girlfight", and now "Fighting Tommy Riley". This is a must see as long as you have the capacity to see beyond "oh my god, what a dirty old man and sad little boy" and really look into what motivates the characters.

Its normally odd that a fine film could be made that deals with both adversity and homosexuallity without outright nudity and sex being involved that it comes rather close to pornography. This is one exception. Trully, it could be admitted that the film does not have a million dollar budget, but it was made with quality and style. Both the acting of the major characters were excpetional. It was not too light that it became a comedy nor too heavy that it became messy. The mood was just right to put the simple message of adversity, the will to overcome, loyalty, and even love in all its complex forms clear. I trully recommend it. If for nothing else but for its simplicity of style and message.

Actor, Eddie Jones should probably get an Oscar nomination for his passionate and totally avid performance in Fighting Tommy Riley, this years answer to Million Dollar Baby. Jones, not so much acts, but fully inhabits his character, as an overweight, troubled, and aging trainer, who is dragged out from a mysterious retirement to coach to a fragmentary but fiercely talented young boxer.

Gone is Million Dollar Baby's more polished revision of the Hollywood boxing saga, with director Eddie O'Flaherty, in this low-budget, but tensely constructed melodrama, choosing instead to chart the twisted emotional interiors of two very different and conflicted men. Unlike Million Dollar Baby's female to male dynamic, this movie's male-to-male friendship is much more forceful and ill defined, even going so far as to take on sexual implications.

Set in Los Angeles, and using its inner city seedy gyms and shabby one room apartments as it's milieu, the movie centers on Tommy Riley (J.P. Davis), a poor but hardworking boxer who - due to inferior coaching - messed up on his Olympic trials. Now he's eking out a living as a store man and packer while trying to keep his boxing skills up to standard at the local rink. He's an impetuous, fiery-headed young man, who, while possessed with obvious good looks and sex appeal - often thinks with his fists and lacks the intelligence and stamina to really get somewhere.

Tommy soon wins the attention and affection of Marty Goldberg, (Jones), a podgy, aging bachelor with his own losses to live down. Marty teaches Melville and Dickens to high schoolers and lives a lonely, secluded life, complete with his books and his cute pug dog. He takes pills for depression and has trouble keeping his trousers up over his widening gut. But when he sees Marty knock out cold a competitor wearing a head guard, he's immediately drawn to the virile young man. Marty realizes that the impressionable Tommy has something really special.

Marty is professional to the core, and wants only what is best for Tommy. But Marty gradually begins to turns his prizefighter into his own prize, an object that he extracts from its normal setting and admires away from the rest of the world. He calculatingly takes him for secluded weekends in the country, gives him helpful rubdowns, and absurdly forbids jogging to music since there will be none heard in the ring.

The naïve Tommy - who seems to have never been given a scrap of love in his life - takes all this in his stride; yet he begins to love Marty, becoming increasingly emotionally dependent on him, and seemingly oblivious to the coach's furtive machinations. But the clues are already there (certainly for the viewer, if not for Tommy), and as Marty begins to weave his web, we begin to get his disappointed, and thwarted life confessional. It's like a warning to Tommy: "You never know what tragedies lie in a person's wake. You only know what I let you see."

Although the story is at times contrived and often a little predictable, Fighting Tommy Riley still has some splendid and powerful moments. The slick and glossy cinematography favors somber blues and grays in the alleys and unadorned sparring places, and then the film bursts with color when the action travels to a lakeside retreat.

The performances are gritty and passionate with the pretty Mr. Davis striking just the right balance between compassion, concern, and ultimately desperation. And Diane Tayler gives an outstanding supporting performance as Diane Stone, Marty's cussing colleague and bottom-rung manager. But in the end, the film belongs to Eddie Jones, who as Marty totally conveys, with a kind of crippling veracity and perhaps also a genuine melancholy, the terrible results of just not letting go of life's disappointments. Mike Leonard July 05.

I watched this film a couple of days ago and found it one of the most compelling dramas I've seen in a long time. The strength of the film lies in both the crafting and portrayals of its two leading characters, an older gay man suffering from depression whose budding boxing career had been shattered by homophobia, and a struggling young boxer who just needed the right mentorship to unlock his extraordinary potential. The film is an affirmation of humanity and the positive contributions that people undervalued by society can make in synergy, given the right circumstances.

Both Eddie Jones and J.P. Davis give outstanding performances that cause me to wonder why I haven't seen more of them. Their characters are complex, flawed, but enormously sympathetic; their relationship is both fraught with tension and taboo yet highly successful, for the boxer at least. One strongly identifies and empathizes with both of them.

I am an anti-bullying educator, and am amazed at the insightfulness of the film's message about the power of positive motivation and affirmation to heal the scars inflicted by mistreatment in early life, unleashing unseen human potential that collectively can transform society. I was particularly amazed when I learned that the strapping young actor who plays the boxer, J.P.Davis, wrote the script. I can't imagine him ever having experienced bullying, yet he grasps the dynamics with remarkable perceptiveness. Mr. Davis' mix of strength, tenderness, and vision, in his writing, acting, and example, is a combination hard to fathom, but just goes to show, as the movie teaches, that appearances aren't everything. I was also inspired to read of his struggle to get the film produced, insisting that he play the title character against advice from industry insiders. No doubt they thought, like the otherwise positive reviewer from the New York Times, that Mr. Davis was "too handsome" to come across as one so desperate and gritty. They were wrong. Clearly Mr. Davis knew what he was doing, and the result is moving.

I recommend this film highly, but have one reservation. While the film's hero is the older gay man, he doesn't come to realize his own worth indpendently of his relationship with Tommy Reilly. That's tragic, but instructive at the same time, perhaps opening the eyes of others to their value. This is a film with the ability to change hearts and minds.

"Fighting Tommy Riley"
Neil Rosen Review

Every once in a while, an independent film comes along, that just could be the springboard for a very promising career. In this case, the movie is called "Fighting Tommy Riley" and the actor, who lights up the screen, is newcomer JP Davis.

The story surrounds a boxer named Tommy and a trainer named Marty who are both trying to come to grips with their troubled past. Marty, a former fighter himself, discovers his next, promising prospect at a local gym whereas a sparring partner, Tommy easily knocks out his opponent. Marty quickly sees that this kid has talent and embraces Tommy's potential, despite the many people who advise him to stay away from this self destructive kid. Marty convinces Tommy to train closely with him and over time Tommy not only becomes a first class fighter, but the two also grow very close.

There are some surprise twists, which I won't give away here and the film itself is an acting showcase for both JP Davis as Tommy and Eddie Jones who plays Marty. Davis who also wrote the script, has taken what could have been a run of the mill boxing story and infused it with lots of heart and vivid characterization. He has lots of charisma and is captivating to watch. Eddie Jones, long known for supporting roles, is also given the spotlight here. Playing the lonely and ailing Marty, he often rises to the occasion, but sometimes he's also a bit over the top.

Shot on a miniscule budget of only $200,000, there are obviously some limitations here. Additionally there are some clichéd moments, as well as a few predictable parts, but those are often overcome by Davis' terrific performance and fine direction by newcomer Eddie O' Flaherty.

The end result is a film that is less about boxing and who will win a bout, then it is about the interaction between believable characters and their ultimate search and struggle for redemption.
Neil Rosen's Big Apple Rating: 3 apples

JP Davis has crafted a story that is rare and engaging. This movie is a must see for anyone who likes stories that are rich with emotion and deeply portray real-life relationships.

a compelling and touching story. very well written and acted. it moved and entertained me. it is one of those films that you need to see more than once to pick up all the subtleties.

The film is truly a marvel. This inspired yet unpretentious screenplay tells the story of an amateur boxer and his trainer. This character-driven drama is wonderfully developed, and the main characters themselves, though complex personalities, emote in such raw, sincere manners.

I picked up this DVD thinking it would be a straightforward story of an aspiring boxer and the trainer who helps him become great. Make no mistake, this is no "Rocky" clone. Though I suppose it could be mildly disturbing to those with a not-so-open mind, I found it to be a poignant and passionate tale.

Tommy and his trainer, Marty both have painful pasts. Both could be considered rebels for very different reasons. I found both actors, J.P. Davis and Eddie Jones to be up for the task of these emotionally charged roles.

Marty, alone and distraught, pushes Tommy to strive for greatness and in the process stirs up demons from his own past. Though this film seems to remain relatively unknown in the U.S., I believe it won top honors in the Canadian film festival and for good reason.

I found this to be quite a unique story, one which touched me very deeply as I came to feel compassion for both men. It's definitely worth your time.