The Wrestler. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. WIth Mickey Rourke...

...looks like the first Aronofsky movie that wont create a dispute between the critics.
Rourke looks frightening in the trailer.not surprising.

Who hated Requiem?

hand up here

and here

i liked it at the time but have never felt like rewatching it. I'm intrigued by the rehabilitation of Mickey Rourke's career though.

Rourke is fine and difficult to look at. The movie is sentimental and, when it leaves the wrestling milieu (or Rourke's grimly funny day job at the deli counter), sentimental, esp re the estranged daughter played by Evan Rachel Wood.

http://www.firstshowing.net/img/wrestler-rourke-fl.jpg

uh scuse my Friday fatigue-impaired writing -- the second "sentimental" shd be "formulaic".

i think it's one of those films that's easy to hate when you're not watching it. i've seen requiem a bunch of times and always found good, but remember it is as stylistic drek, i guess because that stuff's the most memorable. i think it's a good film. pi was way less impressive after my teenage enthrallment.

i liked the springsteen song on the new trailer.

vs.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/aida_aida_bucket/MickeyRourke.jpg

i remember seeing requiem with a few friends and no one saying a word for about five minutes after we left the theater, until someone finally broke the tension. but in retrospect it's a pretty terrible (if visceral) movie.

and becomes an Aronofsky retro thread in 3, 2, 1...

My exp has been it's not a good idea to reevaluate retrospectively until you watch/hear/read something again. The mind does funny things.

btw this film is written by a former Onion staffer.

I'm curious about this but Aranofsky's track record is horrible. Pi was okay, a cute little first film. Requiem was pretty crap, despite my having enjoyed the book in the 80s. Didn't see that last sci-fi love story bomb thing (did anybody?)

i've enjoyed all of his movies, including the "sci-fi love story bomb thing" but they definitely all have problems.

The Fountain was his weakest but I didn't hate it.

The Fountain was very pretty but crazy. I watched it the same night as the Solaris remake. That was a bad day.

I am looking forward to The Wrestler a lot. It sounds mawkish in that way I like, but I know a lot of people hate. Mickey Rourke with a hearing aid. Good grief.

Is this based on a true story or something?

not directly so far as I know, but there are plenty of bit players from the 'industry' in it.

Oh god I got to see this trailer the other day. Insufferable.

looks like Oscar bait to me, but i can't resist this type of flick so i'll probably see it as soon as it comes out on ntflx.

morbz is otm. this is a good movie but about as subtle, emotionally, as anything he's ever done.

Rourke genuinely looks like a washed-up mid-card star from the late-80s/early-90s after fifteen years of coke (like all good washed-up mid-card stars from the late-80s/early-90s), so it's got my vote.

Oh god I hated Requiem. All it had going for it was "intensity" -- and the same could be said for a bad car accident (which is, frankly, also more exciting to sit through)

I actually enjoyed Pi though.

films could use more of the right "intensity," less of the hokey eyewash re Rourke's relations w/ the two women in this film.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3740936/Hollywood-film-The-Wrestler-insults-Iran.html

aronofsky is the classic dork tryin too hard - pretty much want to see this tho

Rourke's character make a pointed distinction between Def Leppard (rawks) and Kurt Cobain (pussy) -- is it supposed to be irony that the movie and Rourke's character are definitely less Leppard and more Cobain?

Unless The Boss is meant as the middle ground.

Pi is one of my fav films ever, but Requiem I've seen once and not sure I want a repeat - too much of a bash over the head.

This movie also does not act like I've come to expect an Aronofsky movie to act. Only scene that reminded me of Requiem was Rourke's last day behind the deli counter.

I want those deli outtakes.

Hmmmm, who would want to see a Leppardy movie? Besides all the ILE Ivan Reitman fans?

(kinda wanted the Ram to die after the "pussy Cobain" line, anyway)

(I think Kelly Reichardt is a more Cobainy filmmaker than DA, fwiw)

so if this is less Aronofskyian than his others, it's a good thing, no?

Requiem was a drag. You could have cut out 90% of the Ellen Burstyn popping pills and rifling through the fridge and it still would have been too much. Plus Jared Letlol!!

i hate aronofsky but this is clearly going to owne

Hmmmm, who would want to see a Leppardy movie?

Obviously not my genre, but I think I'd rather see a Leppardy movie on this subject matter. Indeed, that's what we're watching during the extreme wrestling sequence with the staple gun.

lol ernest the cat miller

lol Eric, "hair metal" was a fashion show, sonically and every other way! Staple gun is more Nine Inch Nails (I'm sure Ram thinks Reznor a pussy, too -- I wonder if he's ever heard of GG Allin). My idea of a Leppardy movie wd probably be The Devil Wears Prada, if I'd seen it.

?!

You have a weird idea of what Leppard fans are into.

I think the most 'Leppard' line is when Rourke sez "Let's all take a shower."

to wash all the sugar off?

btw, comedian Todd Barry as supermarket boss

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/rourkes-comeback-semi-good-for-the-jews/

On first meeting his director, Darren Aronofsky, Mr. Rourke said “he looked real Jewish and real smart but he had this swagger.”

On first meeting his director, Darren Aronofsky, Mr. Rourke said “he looked real Jewish and real smart but he had this swagger.”

haven't seen this yet but it sure looks like it's inspired by the Jake Roberts section in "Beyond the Mat" -- or maybe all washed-up professional wrestler stories take the same shape.

Whoever set Rourke looks perfect for the part is OTM

set = said

thought pi was okay
disliked requiem's afterschool-special-on-steroids steez
tuned out for the fountain
am down for anything that tries to revive mickey rourke's career

This film is not aging well in my memory. It's diverting bullshit, really, and makes explicit even in the dialogue that it's The Passion of the Christ in tights.

passion of the tights

passion of the tights

instant classik

SPOILERS KINDA

i saw this today and during the climactic final match, a guy in the front row got up and started SCREAMING like he was actually at the match for the entire length of the scene - "YEAH MAN!!! YEAH MAN!!! GET HIM!!! SLAM HIM!!!" - dunno if he was drunk or what but guy was having such a good time that anyone telling him to pipe down would've seemed like a douche (it was also pretty much a packed theater)

END SPOILERS KINDA

at any rate this movie was ok-not-great, did love the numerous union county, nj references ("so what are you doing in this little town of rahway?")

but didn't that guy find out, y'know, that it's all fake?

I really would like to see this film. I wonder if the filmmakers were inspired to any degree by the documentary from '99 "Beyond the Mat", wherein Jake "the Snake" Roberts is filmed as he goes around from one depressing "indie" wrestling venue to another, and in the midst of that already depressing scenario (a decade earlier he was a huge star) he is struggling with a crack addiction and attempting (or making a non-attempt) to reconcile with his daughter

I came away from that documentary convinced that Omaha is one of the most depressing places in the U.S.

As it happens Oklahoma is the only continental state besides Maine that I have never made tracks in

i hav been to maine and oklahoma but not some other states

xpost

SOOORY, not Omaha. Tulsa. Tulsa.

Soory.

btw is this real enough 4 u dr http://i42.tinypic.com/9u2b75.gif

http://www.g4vault.com/images/jb6cwh1dy3x9l2wir4d7.png

tulsa is an ok place imo

Yeah, probably Tulsa is just plain peachy, but that documentary made it seem incredibly depressing

I would love to visit Maine. Portland? I suppose it will happen at some point.

P'rhaps in the future Mickey Rourke will star in a film about my love for California and Montana and then my posts on this thread will once again become on-topic.

In any case, I'm gonna wind up in Binghamton.

i lived in oklahoma...twice!

We saw this last night and I thought it was fantastic and Rourke, of course, was awesome. I don't know exactly why yet but for some reason it really affected me and I cried through a good 1/2 of it. Easily one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

Also completely failed to recognize Judah Friedlander.

he was not wearing trucker hat printed "pro wrestler" ?

I didn't recognize him either? Who was he?

I watched this and I cried...I cried like a big dumb homo. The heft of the drama benefits from it being by a long margin Aronofsky's funniest film (ditto Morb's wanting deli counter outtakes, Todd Barry as Wayne, and of course the wrestlers & their matches) I think though.

There were still some very Aronofsky-esque elements - the time jumping after the Ram's match with the staplegun guy, the audio effects with the hearing aid (the feedback when he first walks into the strip club), the minimal score.

But yeah I love the shit out of this movie and will probably watch it again tonight.

One of the promoters. He was at the beginning and at the signing in the small wood-paneled room.

SPOILER ALERT

I enjoyed this movie but in the end it was just another conventional love story: impossible beautiful stripper with a heart of gold falls for guy who's been an asshole/loser most of his life, who suddenly wakes up and realizes he's totally alone, and just in time, a woman comes to save him....bah!

Rourke is awesome though, doesn't seem at all like he's acting. Maybe he wasn't.

Tormei, holy shit, she looks fabulous. Oh and can act too.

But she didn't save him.

I mean, I guess I didn't get love story so much as a lifequest parable thing (passion of the tights!).

SPOILER

But she didn't save him.

― Muomas (vader is hanging onto the nose of the ship like tj-hooker (nickalicious), Tuesday, January 6, 2009 8:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

it's arguable that he doesn't have his epiphany until she shows up to his match at the end--think he would have given that speech if she hadn't been there? I'm not so sure. It reminded me of those moments in romantic comedies when the couple that's been almost getting together for the last hour and twenty five minutes finally declare their love in public and all the office workers/people on the subway/street start clapping for them.

Don't get me wrong though, overall I liked it, I just thought at it's core it was very conventional.

Also, ending a bit like the end of the Sopranos!

Also, ending a bit like the end of the Sopranos!

Yeah, is it so wrong to want just the slightest bit of resolution? Otherwise, I thought this was quite incredible and definitely the best of Aronofsky's films I've seen so far.

I think my brother had a really good point about the resolution - it doesn't matter if he died in the ring this time, or next time, the point was that he'd keep wrestling until he died in the ring. This is the only thing he knew how to do, so this is what he was going to do until he died.

Makes sense, and that's sort of what I thought myself once it was over. The selfish escapist in me just wanted Pam to stick around, though.

I want to see it again but I'm not sure I can handle crying that much a second time around!

Todd Barry <3 Did you notice in the credits that two of the deli counter people were Aronofsky's parents? So sweet.

Also, I can't believe how hot Tomei looked esp for 40+.

the point was that he'd keep wrestling until he died in the ring. [

Yes, and that's almost as tediously cliched as the Stripper with the Heart of Gold and the Alienated Daughter.

i saw this today and during the climactic final match, a guy in the front row got up and started SCREAMING like he was actually at the match for the entire length of the scene - "YEAH MAN!!! YEAH MAN!!! GET HIM!!! SLAM HIM!!!" - dunno if he was drunk or what but guy was having such a good time that anyone telling him to pipe down would've seemed like a douche (it was also pretty much a packed theater)

this^ is more awesome than anything in the whole movie

few other things:

• marissa tomei not getting enough love on this thread-- she was just as good as rourke if not better also v v pretty btw
• 1st deli scene was one of the most enjoyable things ive seen in a while. i worked a deli counter one summer and rourke is 100% OTM with his deli performance.
• morbs otm re: how formulaic this is but its kind of nice to see Aronofsky not bite off more than he can chew
• overall a good to great movie with some flaws

I'm surprised no one has commented about how utterly horrible Evan Rachel Wood is in this movie. I generally don't like Aronofsky but I really loved this film, aside from the scenes she was in.

Also, why the hell did she have a Vampire Weekend poster on the wall of her living room??!?!

It was almost as inexplicable as the Will Oldham poster on Nick Sobotka's room in season two of The Wire.

because she is a young person and set designers do that when they design the set for a young person's house/room duh

also i thought her performance was really good it was just that her role in the story was inserted in such a clunky way that it didnt really work

aw fuck i'm posting to an ILE movie thread :-\

I think that role is almost impossible to come off well in.

that was kind of my point, but still think it was a good performance considering.

I really liked this movie.

One tiny thing that bothered me: How did he automatically realize that his daughter was gay? The only evidence he had was another woman answering the door. I just figured she had a roommate.

its kind of cute that that's basically the only thing he knows about her w/o being told

How did he automatically realize that his daughter was gay?

I didn't come to that conclusion based on anything I saw, and I figured he arrived there just because she dresses in a non-groupie/stripper way and didn't seem very girly. She may well have been, but I think the more important thing about his character is that he jumped to that conclusion.

I got the feeling he thought so because of her roommate.

Her roommate's protectiveness, that is.

IIRC, we didn't see her be protective until after he said that? She just sorta opened the door the first time. But I never even considered the possibility that she wasn't and I think Johnny makes an interesting point.

The move never says for sure one way or the other, does it?

Got swept in a rush to see this despite not really wanting to. What really struck me is that the places where the movie excelled most (the fight scenes) would have really benefited from Aronofsky's Pi/Requiem style; the highly repetitive, hard cutting, less linear way of putting stuff together. The rest of the movie was totally lost, I don't mind "formulaic" but to do a dad/daughter intro/make-up/breakdown in three scenes is essentially to insult our intelligence. So fine, the conventional stuff isn't strong, make it more of a fable, more poetic, less narrative. But they really seem intent on sticking with straight american indie character study stuff and the result is pretty much a failure.

I'm probably late in realizing the obvious but Aronofsky is way, way, way less of an intellectual filmmaker than I ever thought. I will remember Rourke for a long time though, he was just fantastic.

^^^^ OTM in every possible way.

the movie was too sentimental and cliched in parts, but Rourke is awesome enough to make it good.(hated the daughter acting though)
also, the contradiction between the violent, post-modern boxing scenes, and the subtle, more basic and family based daughter-father scenes works fine.
the writer (and rourke) did a good job,sometimes, delivering simple and effective lines like "i don't want to be lonely", as oppose to the self-destruction and addiction to pain and suffering of Rourke, that the movie apllies to.
but the story is too basic and formulatic in general to be really great

while i'm thinkin about it, WTF at the firefighter-fetishist girl???

the movie basically presents everyone in the wrestling world as a cool dude while the real world is full of pervs and jerks.

the washroom-fuck scene was unrreliable yes,
but about yr 2nd statement -almost everyone in both worlds are jerks and pervs

the dialouge before the scene i mean...

naw dude, all the wrestlers, promoters, trainers, are presented as nice bros looking out for each other and saying 'hell of a match' (to be fair rourke's character is so nice you would want to be nice to him but this is not representative of pro wrestling AT ALL).

Outside world we got creepy firefighter girl, porn-looking, jerkwad store manager, uptight annoying customers, mixed results at best for daughter and marissa tomei.

well, i wouldnt call people who don't mind/like to be cut with razors and stuff normal either.

weren't most of the wrestlers playing themselves?

they were--those scenes were largely improv i think

the stapler on body flesh scene werent "improv" if i remember correctly,plus Rourke cutting himself deliberately at the deli doesnt count as normal behaviour..

we're talking about the locker room scenes not the fight scenes

ok let me correct myself:
the wretslers are fucked up in the head
the rest are perv and jerks, as hipster dillema said.
conclusion:everyone is fucked up in one way or another,which fits the director superficial pov - also represented in his previouis,dull work.

had this movie any real nerve, Rourke's character would have realized that, hey, there are worse fates (i.e. dead of a cardiac arrest) than working a deli counter. BUT NO.

I figured the movie was making it clear that dying is better than working behind a deli counter.

Depends on the meat you're slicing.

i enjoyed working at a deli counter

have never been a professional wrestler though

A very minor point, but bothersome just the same: how did Rourke pay for the surgery? We don't see him struggling to pay hospital bills. He makes a point of saying aloud that he's not full time at the supermarket, therefore he's got no insurance.

To address Alfred's point... I'm imagining Rourke's character getting the bills and just letting them pile up in the corner of his trailer. I mean, the way he seemed to be (relatively) casual about getting locked out of his place, I don't picture him as caring too much about how quickly he pays his hospital bills.

had this movie any real nerve, Rourke's character would have realized that, hey, there are worse fates (i.e. dead of a cardiac arrest) than working a deli counter. BUT NO.

lol stop countering the tragic hero archetype.

this movie sounds so fucking stupid, mawkish and predictable

but I will probably rent it

It kinda is! But the fantastic performances do a great job of elevating it beyond the mess it could have been.

yeah Shakey everything you are assuming is true but Rourke makes the effort worth it.

The Jake the Snake connection is definitely on the money, the hurried daughter subplot was basically the Roberts-and-daughter scenes from Beyond the Mat, only the daughter was hotter and angrier, and had not done a load of weird drawings and poetry

think the locker rooms scenes were partly overly fuzzy and amicable to show that Rourke's guy was actually kind of one of the luckier ones in that he'd reached the top, paid his dooz and was well-respected by everyone even 20 years later; see also those lingering shots of the less famous wrestlers at the signing tables getting even less business than him

are there any good behind the scenes books about the whole 80s wrestling industry? either a one man's POV, or a warts and all account of the whole thing. this film has got me really interested in it all.

could someone of randy's one-time stature really fall so low? i know similar happened to jake the snake but we can blame crack for the bulk of that, and randy seems to be fairly clean. are there other real-life once-huge wrestlers who now live on the scrapheap?

never watched wrestling much during the 80s but the way the camera was constantly following behind randy, in a kind of over-the-shoulder shot, was that how WWF filmed wrestlers entering the ring back then? or was it just an arbitrary choice by the director? also loved how the film stock was so rich, such vivid colours. gorgeous looking film.

*spoiler* the whole love-interest plot seemed kinda tacked on to make it more mainstream-friendly but at least it ended like it did with him walking away from her to (likely) die. same with the daughter plotline, it'd have been better if the film was solely about just one lonely man struggling with how his life turned out, without any of the ooh-aah corny heart-warming/breaking family bullshit. still, great film.

are there any good behind the scenes books about the whole 80s wrestling industry? either a one man's POV, or a warts and all account of the whole thing. this film has got me really interested in it all.

Tom Billington's "Pure Dynamite" is probably the key read here, a fantastic tale of how a man goes from being arguably the third biggest draw in the WWF to being crippled, penniless and living in a council estate within two decades. Billington may have been one of the great wrestling innovators but he's fully aware that he's also a dreadful cunt of a human being. Lots of light-hearted anecdotes about beating up random strangers, drugging various wrestlers and pointing a gun at his wife.

Bret Hart's "Hitman: My Real Life In The Cartoon World of Wrestling" is a good read as well, or it is up until the point where Hart's ego takes over. But then at that point you can look at it as the tale of how a seemingly sane human being can be made insane by the desire to be the best at pretend fighting. Fantastic anecdotes in here as well.

Irvin Muchnick's "Wrestling Babylon" is the big "wrestling = sleaze" book. Good stuff on the downfall of the Von Erich family, Jimmy Snuka beating a woman to death being connected to the tragic and mysterious passing of his then-girlfriend, steroid abuse etc.

As for guys who were top of the wrestling tree who fell that far... Lex Luger is the obvious answer. Probably worth remembering that Yokozuna was touring in front of crowds of 250 in the UK before he passed away as well.

what did you think of this film, dom?

[urlhttp://ichlugebullets.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/in-review-the-wrestler-2008/]Brief thoughts here./url]

here

the WWF was kind of the elephant in the room with this film; if he'd headlined MSG in the 80s and was as big a draw as the film implied he probably wouldn't be in quite such a pathetic state as he'd have got some endorsements and/or a moderatively lucrative nostalgia run in the early 00s

Jake the Snake wasn't like a consistent massive top card guy and even then the WWE have tried to do stuff with him relatively recently and put out some risible inspiring-triumph-over addiction biography but dude has basically been dead for over a decade; Ram in the film seemed like he was generally alert and professional and apparently still putting on decent matches

I gotta get round to reading Dynamite Kid's book, but after reading Ring of Hell last year I want to space out my depressing wrestling sleaze shit fairly carefully

xposts.

ha there is definitely a bit of Luger to Rourke's look in this film, but the film kind of gave me the impression that Ram was supposed to be a decent worker as opposed to a scarcely mobile body builder

Unless Ram's run wasn't in the WWE/F but in the then Jim Crockett Promotions? He'd have gotten magazines covers for that as well as endorsements, but then guys like Barry Windham did the same and he ended up working on a building site.

xp

but like they had this bleached blonde 80s power guy doing head scissors and enzuiguiris and shit so I dunno if that was just to make the in-ring stuff a bit more palatable for people who aren't freaks

I thought MSG was pretty much WWF territory in the late 80s

Barry Windham is real fat these days, he works for WWE now though? Or at least does talking head shit for them

The Vampire Weekend poster got the biggest laughs in the cinema when I saw this which was weird.

All the stuff w/the daughter was appalling, whether based on a doc or not.

Oh, they fired him last month, arf

The Vampire Weekend poster got the biggest laughs in the cinema when I saw this which was weird.

lol curzon amirite

Yeah.

lol watching film with bespectacled music nerd sociopaths amirite

Windham got cut in the "WWE releases 10% of staff" cull a few weeks back, but he was working as a production editor for the E previously. However, he was on severe hard times between the closure of WCW and him being hired for that.

MSG was WWF territory, but doesn't he mention wrestling at the Georgia Dome at one point? That was Turner-controlled.

xxxp

lol watching film with bespectacled music nerd sociopaths amirite

― Glans Kafka (MPx4A), Monday, 26 January 2009 11:34 (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Bespectacled, music nerd, sociopath.

brilliant, thanks dom

xposts

Here's Irvin Muchnick's 1988 Penthouse article on the Von Erich family. The Von Erichs are maybe the one wrestling story that needs to be turned into a movie stat: http://www.hack-man.com/Wrestling/NewsArticles/198810xx-PenthouseVonErich.html

yeah they could have Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley soundtracking the bit where Kerry von Erich irrepairably crushes his recently-reconstructed foot by prematurely walking across the room to retrieve a burger

The main thought I had leaving the cinema was “Well, no 80s headliner would have worked with a moveset like that: heavyweight title holders didn’t start coming off the top rope until the early 90s, and there wasn’t an aerial artist on top of any wrestling federation until Eddie Guerrero around 2003, so why was Robinson doing headscissor takedowns?”

jesus dom

yeah they could have Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley soundtracking the bit where Kerry von Erich irrepairably crushes his recently-reconstructed foot by prematurely walking across the room to retrieve a burger

― Glans Kafka (MPx4A), Monday, 26 January 2009 11:38 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Or "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue for the bit when Kevin Von Erich's 12th birthday present from his father is a prostitute.

Necro Butcher with glasses and his hair up politely discussing the implications of staple gun spots is massively funny in this btw

Especially because he looks like Dustin Diamond-gone-Bumfights

I love Necro Butcher's wiki page with the disambiguation warning one not to get him confused with the black metal Necrobutcher.

The thing I really took away from this movie is how much I hate old people at deli counters and supermarkets. They end up complaining about every little thing and asking about sales/coupons/etc, and hold up the line with their drama. I think I would rather die of heart failure than deal with them on a daily basis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/28/mickey-rourke-wwe

Nicole otm. after the second time the old lady sent me back for her german potato salad i would have gone totally hulkamania

It seems like I always end up stuck in line behind these people when I go grocery shopping.

Haha, the two things I always think whenever I'm in those kinds of situations are:

1) "Okay, I'm not them and maybe they have some unknown reason influencing why they're like that, so bite yer tongue and be patient."

2) "That said, I am going to do my damnedest never to be like that when I am at that age, and I hope I'm not like that now."

Admittedly my working in public service has helped influence this a lot. I remember last year I had to talk to AT&T for a bit to clear up a massive billing glitch. I described it all calmly, I was v. patient waiting on hold while it was worked out and thanked them for clearing everything up in the end, and whoever was on the other end thanked me for not yelling or being angry or the like! Can't imagine what they must deal with regularly.

lol when i was in the video rental industry i had a guy threaten to spit on me when i wouldnt remove his late fee

was he like... 'I will spit on you!'

really enjoyed this, btw. liked how they budgeted for a real NES game. and for all the talk about about how conventional this movie is, I really didn't expect that dude to catch the meat when the Ram lobbed it from behind the deli.

lol chris jericho vs mickey rourke smackdown:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/01/28/lkl.rourke.jericho.cnn

Really *loved* this and it's been mulling around in my head ever since seeing it. A couple of points that stand out: best ever use of G'n'R in a film? Reading up on how they could "afford" to use Sweet Child o' Mine (ie. Rourke swung it for free) makes this even better. Also, the Randy Cam style trailing camera felt like a direct homage to the Dardenne Bros' "Rosetta", which was nice.

A...Apter?

Haha

I'm trying to decide which I disliked more, GnR or Rosetta.

Sicinski otm:

The Wrestler actually shares pro wrestling's lunkheaded conservatism, right down to a preference for unreconstructed Reagan-era debauchery (shit-metal like Quiet Riot and Ratt, plus watery domestic brewski) over "that pussy Kurt Cobain." Hell, even Bruce Springsteen's closing song is just Sting's "King of Pain" with all the metaphors removed. Sad thing is, there's actual material here that could have been provocative had anyone concerned actually thought about it....

http://academichack.net/reviewsDecember2008.htm#Wrestler

ie, sorry Eric, it's a metal movie to the core.

Let's not talk about this anymore.

You really think a form of entertainment that, for the past at least 40 years, has thrived on "evil white rich guy gets out-thought, outfought and vanquished by plucky redneck/African-American/Hispanic (delete depending on minority of choice in local area)" counts as conservatism, Morbz?

wdn't "evil A-rab" fit better in the very first ring scenario in the movie?

I'm just going by the predilections of high-school knuckledraggers I knew who were obsessed by it, until later I met hipsters who paid attention too.

Morbs has always struck me as a wrestling heel, but I do mean this as a compliment.

http://www.in-sect.com/scr/the_genius.jpg

^^ keepin it positive

/studying to be a board lawyer

Vince may not be a genius...

Man, was I the only one who was disturbed by the Necro Butcher fight? I never followed pro wrestling as a kid, but I saw it a few times, and I don't remember anything remotely like that. My eyes were like half-closed the entire time.

I didn't read the thread too closely, because I don't want too many spoilers, but I saw Necro Butcher do a Staple Gun fight with New Jack, and there were a about 30 people there.

A few years later, I saw Terry Funk and Eddie Guererro lose to noname locals at a race track, and this was long after they might have headlined at MSG. (and before Eddie got to come back)

So to chime in without seeing the movie, yeah there is a long way to fall after the big time. Where is Brutus the Barber now?

there were acrobatic wrestlers at high levels throughout the history of pro wrestling, so I don't think I'd get upset because a fictional character was doing modern stuff too early. Very little of it is new. ever.

I haven't watched this movie yet, because it is kind of painful to remember how much I loved this stuff and how ugly it all ended up.

For me this was his best film so far. In fact, I think every film of his has surpassed his previous film. He's halfway to becoming the next Cronenberg..

uh waht

Man, was I the only one who was disturbed by the Necro Butcher fight? I never followed pro wrestling as a kid, but I saw it a few times, and I don't remember anything remotely like that. My eyes were like half-closed the entire time.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Sunday, 1 February 2009 07:25 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Someone needs to watch a New Jack compendium imo.

saw it today. blah blah cliched blah blah rourke is great blah blah pretty bleh overall though. don't understand why tomei got an oscar nom. maybe nominators liked her boobies is all i can figure.

pretty good guess tbh

just saw this tonight - usually i try and not to get stuck up on open ended endings but i was left really wishing i had seen rourke act out his death in the ring, he was so good in this that i felt kind of robbed to have not seen him 'take on' his characters death.

i don't have much to add otherwise except i think there should be a spin off reality show kind of like dirty jobs except it's surly mickey rourke - deli scenes were maybe the funniest scenes i saw all year (challops)

First deli scene was so good

I got a kick out of how they had Ernest "The Cat" Miller in there. And I had to explain to my friends about the hardcore match that "that's what they really do" and told the story of seeing ECW in 1999, where New Jack did have the trash can of stuff + staple gun.

I was really impressed by the attention to detail for randy's part: the NES game(the wiki/imdb mentions its a rom-hacked version of Wrestlemania), the opening shots of press-clippings straight out of all those late-80s ish of Pro-Wrestling Illustrated I would flip thru at the local drug store before buying that month's Mad, the thumb tacks, etc.

I did laugh at marisa tomei of all people being "movie ugly" and the contrivance of no guy in the place wanting a dance from her.

Other wrestling books worth tracking down:

Roddy Piper's Bio, Mick Foley's bio(tho he didn't get big until the 90s), the Wrestlecrap book, and some of the histories that Scott Keith put out. The Roddy Piper book is distinctly disjointed which demonstrated to me that a guy who got head trauma repeatedly as a part of his professional career wrote it. He also would do shit back then of getting paid for big matches with cocaine.

The formulaic bit i didn't like was the 2nd deli scene, where i figured he'd have to be fired or quit right after retiring because we need our tragic hero at his very lowest and so all this shit just has to happen to him.

Kingfish did you see this @ Lloyd Center?

Cinema 21

LIPNICK

This is a wrestling picture; the audience wants to see action, drama, wrestling, and plenty of it. They don't wanna see a guy wrestling with his soul — well, all right, a little bit, for the critics — but you make it the carrot that wags the dog. Too much of it and they head for exits and I don't blame 'em. There's plenty of poetry right inside that ring, Fink. Look at "Hell Ten Feet Square."

LOU

Blood, Sweat, and Canvas.

LIPNICK

Look at "Blood, Sweat, and Canvas." These are big movies, Fink. About big men, in tights — both physically and mentally. But especially physically.

this was very whoa:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10077

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/0d308ebcbb/the-uncler-w-uncle-sam-and-alyssa-milano

yea i saw that rose interview. liked it.

i reeeally wanna see this movie

Mickey's awesome speech at the Independent Spirit Awards

Reminded me of π.

to state the obvious, Spirit speech > The Wrestler

<3<3<3 amazing. thanks for that ET

http://idolator.com/5160174/the-idolator-q--a-ne+yo

oops

was supposed to be

http://kotaku.com/5158834/the-making-of-wrestle-jam-the-wrestlers-unsung-hero

whoever did costume design for this is pretty great

PASSION OF THE TIGHTS

this movie was rocky vi: rocky wrestles

this movie was awful.

i'm probably repeating myself from upthread, but man, those fights were tough to watch. evan rachel wood films nicely at dusk.