DIRECTORIAL DEBUT SHINES ON

BERRY CREATES STORY OF GRITTY INNER CITY LIFE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Director Halle Berry finds nothing pretty about a down and out MMA fighter working her way back into the ring for a championship bout in Bruised (2021).

Berry relies on flat black sets and a too true to life storyline to make a very gritty film about women stuck in ‘Inner City’ America.

The camera follows MMA fighter Jackie Justice, played by Berry, literally from the toilet to an eventful return to the ring after four years away as a disgraced memory.

The script is filled with many interesting characters, such as Desi, played by Adan Canto. Desi is Jackie’s boyfriend/manager, and the two characters, living together under the same roof, struggle to make a go of life on mean streets.

Canto shows how Desi means well, but he just does not know how to talk about issues reasonably with Jackie, which causes frustration and leads him to drink, which in turn makes everything much worse with flashes of drunken violence.

Danny Boyd Jr plays Jackie’s abandoned son, Manny. 

Manny lost his father to gun violence, and having witnessed the murder, decides not to talk to anybody about anything. Jackie takes Manny in after her son is returned to her sister, and her sister then leaves him on her door step.

Berry creates a compelling linear narrative about a black woman trying to remake her lifestory the right way. The director intertwines one linear narrative about MMA fighting with a second linear narrative about social injustice. And then the unified linear narrative is made a bit more complicated with short back stories on the characters.

Berry shows a delicate technical touch in her directorial debut by making the two narratives and the back stories seamlessly blend together to make one.

A tone and atmosphere is maintained throughout the film by showing the gritty life on the streets through the lens of someone living and breathing to survive on the streets. 

Berry shows a bit of art as a director by moving the camera around to make a variety of scenes that compel the movie forward. Ultimately, the glimmer of a Hollywood production has been abandoned for a storyline closer to reality.

Jackie has good character development, and Berry’s acting skills are put to use by breaking down into smaller steps the struggle of poverty and the cycle of domestic violence.

The film takes off a bit too quick though, with the moving camera requiring the audience to make certain assumptions, which throws everyone’s memory to previously viewed boxing films. The camera does slow down though, and the audience catches up on what they were missing in the initial opening scenes.

Sheila Atim does a good job as Jackie’s new trainer, Buddhakan, who has a back story of her own that she refuses to tell anyone about. Buddhakan takes on the task of preparing Jackie physically and spiritually for the championship fight.

The film might be considered in the boxing genre except that some scenes depict Jackie training for wrestling parts, and then also several scenes are included of the fighters wrestling in the ring, as is the case in MMA fighting.

Bruised is streaming on Netflix.