Ben Younger directs Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart and Ciaran Hinds in this true story of a boxer who after a car accident refuses to have his spine fused and trains to re-enter the ring. 

I’m a sucker for a good boxing flick and this one delivers enough toil and reach to satisfy. So the ring action is a bit scrappy (if anything it makes the short bursts of actual sport feel intimate and improvised) the drama has its own enticing energy. Younger manages to squeeze real juice from Teller, Eckhart and Hinds acting trinity of broken champion, drunk trainer and overbearing father. In fact the film is often at its best when celebrating the unlikeable arrogance that makes such working class characters break their limitations. It may not reinvent the wheel but it gives it a good fucking spin.

7