There are a lot of genres when it comes to film, and one of my favorites is sports films. I love football,  baseball and other sports movies, but most of all I love boxing films. They just have that underdog or down on your luck feeling about them more often than not. The Featherweight, which is similar in tone to what I’m talking about, is the latest in a long line of fantastic boxing movies.

Willie Pep, short for Papaleo, his given name (James Madio) is living the good life with his wife Linda (Ruby Wolf) half his age when a documentarian approaches him to document his life, not no knowing what things are going to be in the film, Pep agrees to let them follow him around. Mainly to show his training regimen because he’s planning on making a comeback. He is one of the most accomplished boxers of his time, but he’s not the same without being in the ring. The film crew captures more than they bargained for, though. They get a lot of personal stuff and the downfall of a once great boxing champion. 

Robert Kolodny, the director,  uses a unique style for this movie. Because of the filming of the documentary, there are a handful, if not more, fourth wall breaks. Where characters talk directly to the camera man or filmmaker in this case. This style is something new for me. It’s rare that I see something done that I haven’t seen before. The fourth wall breaking breaks up the tension of a serious story, and other times, it adds to the tension. This was a pretty good tool in helping tell the story of this man on the downswing of his life and once a great career.

Because this film is a period piece, it’s set in a specific time, the 1960s, in Hartford Connecticut. This is a grainy feel to the film. I liked that look. It felt like I was actually watching this man’s life unfold on screen before me. All the sets, locations, clothes, cars, and so forth looked authentic to the time. I really did feel like I went back in time to the 60s with how amazingly realized this movie was. I love it when a filmmaker can do that. Even all the boxing props and scenes looked amazing, even though CGI was used to put modern-day actors into archival footage from the past. I didn’t mind it. You have to have a little suspension of disbelief in these situations. 

Besides Madio and Wolf, there is a pretty good supporting cast in this movie. First off is the amazing Stephen Lang as Bill Gore Madio’s character friend and former trainer. He tries to convince him that a comeback at his age isn’t a good thing for his health. They banter a bit here and there, but these two have good chemistry on screen. The next man I should bring up is Keir Gilchrist, who plays William Papaleo Jr. He doesn’t get along with his fathers current wife, his fourth, and that puts him in hot water with his father. They have a tumultuous relationship besides that, though, because of the way Gilchrist’s character gets involved in things he shouldn’t. A fee other cast members I liked watching in this film were Ron Livingston as Madio’s characters manager, Michael Siberry as a sports writer and friend of Madio’s character and Lawrence Gilliad Jr as Sandy Saddler and ex-opponent of Madio’s character who he had a rivalry with in the ring and they do a comedy bit outside the ring for at different clubs. This was a solid cast, but Madio and Wolf were clearly the stars, and deservedly, so of this film.

James Madio is an actor I’ve seen in television shows like The Penguin, Band of Brothers or The Offer here or there, but this is the first time I’ve seen him carry an entire film on his shoulders as the star. He carried himself quite well if I do say so myself. This was a heavy load and had a lot of lifting to do regarding the plot and story. The drama as well as the boxing were a lot for him in this film. As a seasoned pro, he navigated the ups and downs of the character quite nicely. Not just anybody could play a character such as this at his age and make the performance believable.  Madio did a solid job overall.  I look forward to seeing him in more things in the future. 

When it comes to the boxing in this movie, it was either recreations of old fights or archival footage from the past, but the fights for what they were looked fine. There were a lot of training sequences, though. This film was more of a character study of this man and his life outside the ring. He was in another fight entirely, if you will, regarding trying to give up his career and being okay with that part of his life being over. That’s the crux of this story, and it worked pretty well from my perspective. Is this the best boxing movie I’ve ever seen, no, but it’s nowhere near the worst, either.  I definitely would recommend this to sports fans and boxing aficionados alike. This was a decent film.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen