How this failed to get a Best Picture nomination is something of a mystery

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2017)

Mixed Martial Arts isn't a sport we see much of in the movies. Some people might say it isn't a sport at all and in "Warrior" one character describes it as a cockfight, referring to the fighters as animals. In this movie it's certainly brutal but then movies that feature any form of boxing usually are. Gavin O'Connor's film is about a couple of estranged brothers competing against each other in a Mixed Martial Arts tournament and is a wholly admirable picture.
You can guess from the title and the subject matter that this is a man's movie, or at least a male-orientated one, which means it manages to hide the inevitable sentimentality behind a veil of blood, sweat and tears. It's very well written by O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman and brilliantly acted by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy as the brothers and an Oscar-nominated Nick Nolte as their equally estranged father while there's also great work from Kevin Dunn as a high-school principal, Frank Grillo as Edgerton's coach and Jennifer Morrison as his wife. It's also superbly photographed and edited and how if failed to get a Best Picture nomination is something of a mystery.