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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2011)
COUPON BY JASON BLAIR NOW 2 LOCATIONS! A SY'S NEW YORK PIZZA 55 SILVER LN. 654-0603 1211 ALDER 686-9598 COUPONS GOOD UNTIL JANUARY 20, 2011 11AM-MIDNIGHT SUN-THU 11AM-1AM FRI-SAT 11 AM -10PM DAILY SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE 2.00 OFF ANY 18” LARGE $ FREE LARGE ® SODA 2 SLICES W/ PURCHASE OF COUPON A story about fighting your way to independence THE FIGHTER: Directed by David O. Russell. Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Cinematography, Hoyte van Hoytema. Music, Michael Brook. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo. Paramount Pictures, 2010. R. 114 minutes. 44444 E xtending Boston’s banquet at the cineplex this year, The Fighter, which takes place in the Boston suburb of Lowell, joins The Town, Knight and Day and Shutter Island at the table. Of these fi lms, only The Fighter transcends its setting. What may seem like a double dip into genre — Boston and boxing — is actually a piece of bravura fi lmmaking, a regional fi lm only in the sense that local history and custom add fl avor to the core themes of the fi lm. Western Massachusetts, with its swagger and sway, its twin loves of sports and booze, suffuses but doesn’t swallow The Fighter, a fi lm of such ambition and craft that it achieves a kind of timeless quality by its fi nal act. Rare is the drama that manages to be about sports without falling to its knees in sports cliché. Instead, The Fighter focuses on the toil that amateur sports takes on family, friendships and the athlete himself. The fi lm’s structure is a work of art. Closely based upon a true story, The Fighter uses a fi lm-within-a-fi lm to tell the story of a middling welterweight boxer, Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), and his brother and trainer, Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale), a former boxing champ. As the fi lm opens, a documentary crew is trailing Dicky, who claims to be mounting a comeback. But Dicky, who rarely changes clothes, whose eye sockets are cavities of sleeplessness and suffering, doesn’t strike you as the most reliable type. When Dicky re-enacts his most famous fi ght, a 1978 bout with Sugar Ray Leonard, while squatting in a crack house, director David O. Russell (Three Kings, I ♥ Huckabees) cuts in actual footage of the fi ght, so we can feel how low Dicky has fallen. And that documentary? It’s called High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell. With Dicky increasingly unreliable, Alice Ecklund (Melissa Leo), the mother to both brothers — in addition to seven charmless daughters — is exposed as the controlling matriarch, a woman whom Charlene (Amy Adams), Micky’s girlfriend, sees clearly as a drag on Micky. Micky just wants a title shot before he’s too old to try, but his family sees him as a stepping stone, a good boxer rather than a great one. He’s their payday, the family cash cow, and they don’t mind putting Micky in harm’s way if it means even a modest paycheck. For an idea of the chaos Micky faces, look no further than his boxing corner, where his co-trainers are Dicky, a drug addict, and a local Lowell cop. At the calm center of everything sits Micky, played by Wahlberg as a young man of gentle defi ance — a Dirk Diggler with a few more losses under his belt. While Wahlberg cements his reliable standing with a solid and thorough performance, one for which he trained and studied for four years, his fellow actors each give career-defi ning performances. If you aspire to act, The Fighter is an acting clinic. Watch Adams’ face as Wahlberg wallops a bar patron to protect her honor; watch Wahlberg’s expression when he gets her phone number. Observe Melissa Leo’s face as she realizes what Dicky really is — or Dicky’s face as he sings to her so that she might slide back into denial. The entire entourage as they enter Bally’s casino in Atlantic City is a piece of perfect Scorsese-esque stagecraft, and one of the reasons we’ll be watching this fi lm on Sunday afternoons 20 years from now. A fi lm about learning to look out for yourself when those who should be looking out for you can’t, The Fighter is easily among the best fi lms of this year or any other. ew R A R T C I N E M A S for January 6-13 The Ties that Blind BLACK SWAN 5:15 5:00 7:30 9:40 2:30 5:00 7:30 9:40 2:30 5:00 7:30 10:00 4:45 7:10 10:00 4:45 7:10 10:00 4:45 7:10 10:00 4:45 7:10 10:00 4:45 7:10 4:50 7:15 4:50 7:15 4:50 7:15 4:50 7:15 Tamara Drewe 5:00 7:25 4:45 7:10 4:45 7:10 R ENTER THE VOID 1:30 1:30 1:30 R 9:30 midnight midnight 9:30 9:30 ROCKY HORROR R BIJOU SUNDAY 11:00 11:00 DOCUMENTARY SERIES 9:30 9:30 9:30 midnight DUST & Coming soon: ILLUSIONS: MADE IN DAGENHAM THE BURNING MONSTERS MAN FILM TINY FURNITURE 11:00 9:30 492 East 13 th 686-2458 Jan 13 Jan 12 Jan 11 Jan 10 Jan 9 Jan 8 Jan 7 Jan 6 THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUES WED THU 7:40 COUPON COUPON movies bijou-cinemas.com follow us! 11:00 noon R *Adults—$7*Students w/ID—$6*Seniors—$5*Matinees—$5*Lates—$5*Miser Mondays—$3* TIX $2 Tix 21 & FOOD $5 Sun & Tues ovER MENU 7 762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE d davidminortheater.com THURS JAN 6 – WED JAN 12 THU ONAL ... “ EXCEPT AR I TIST WHO ’ S TRYIN B G E T FORE. ’’ O ’ T SEEN OF AN THE WORK METHING WE HAVEN IM ES T O S K R S SHOW U rgis, THE NEW YO -Manohla Da . ” G N I W O L “ MIND-B LON ’Hehir, SA -Andrew O HAT “ THIS IS W NARY ” TIO REVOLU A A LOOKS LIKE . E MAGAZIN C ilg I e N Eb E iri, M NEW YORK -B EXIT THROUGH THE GIFTSHOP DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS INCEPTION THE TOWN MACHETE 5:15 5:15, 9:45 7:20 7:20 9:45 ALL SHOWS CANCELLED 1/10 JANUARY 10 THE TAILGATER OREGON vs AUBURN A F ILM BY OÉ GASPAR N STARTS FRIDAY , JANUARY 7 TH PAULSON BIJOU ART CINEMAS 492 EAST 13TH AVENUE (541) 686-2458 EUGENE WWW.IFCFILMS.COM CHAMPIONSHIP GAME $10 PARTY INCLUDES PARTY BUFFET & DOOR PRIZES ALL NIGHT MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS TODAY! “TEXT-A-BEER” 541-913-5733 ORDER DRINKS & FOOD RIGHT FROM YOUR SEAT “NO LONGER SNEAKING BEER INTO THE MOVIES SINCE 2008” THAI AMERICAN BREAKFAST Saturday & Sunday starting at 9:30am, $5.95 Daily Delivery 4:30-9:00pm Lunch & Dinner Specials All Organic Spices, Greens & Tofu Vegetarian & Vegan Options Wine & Cocktails Beer on Tap Bubble Tea & Smoothies Visit Our Campus Location 11am-9:30pm MON-FRI 9:30am-9:30pm SAT & SUN WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 6, 2011 19
