They Fight, 2026.
Written and Directed by Sheldon Candis.
Starring André Holland, Samira Wiley, Wendell Pierce, Toussaint Francois Battiste, Anthony B. Jenkins, Mykelti Williamson, Tory J. Malone, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Tinashe Kajese, Amanda Warren, and Andre Royo.
SYNOPSIS:
Following a group of adolescent boxers and their formerly incarcerated coach in Southeast Washington DC on the road to defend their national titles.
Released on early parole at around the three-year mark while serving a five-year sentence, Walt Manigan (André Holland, bringing emotional conviction to a role that everything else here simply falls short of) is asked if he is ready to express contrition. It’s a compelling, loaded starting point for writer/director Sheldon Candis’ They Fight (based on the documentary of the same name by Andrew Renzi and a Washington Post article by Michael Minihan) that almost immediately devolves into an uninspired collection of redemption arcs and sports.
Even when accounting for numerous elements of this story that don’t have nearly enough time to breathe and cohere into something emotionally satisfying, it’s evident that Walt’s story and life post-incarceration are indeed worthy of attention. After watching this wonky distillation of those events into a surprisingly short 90 minutes, one gathers that the documentary and Washington Post article likely do greater justice to the subject.
Part of the problem is that for as much as the film wants to be about Walt, it also wants to be an inspiring sports drama about the impoverished boys he comes to lend his boxing expertise to, training at a rec center well behind on payments and about to be shut down. That leaves peanut (Anthony B. Jenkins), Quincey (Toussaint Francois Battiste), and Twin (Tony J. Malone) squabbling for screentime and reasons to invest in their own individual plights.
Meanwhile, Walt is actively rejecting the responsibility that the rec center coach (Wendell Pierce, also undeniably solid here in his sincerity wanting the children to thrive) is placing on him, under the thought process that if he failed his own son, why should he be lecturing and tutoring these kids not just about boxing but about other aspects of life, such as how to approach the crushes they have on other girls or how to process sadness and grief. He also seeks another shot at a relationship with former flame Ketta (Samara Wiley), who appears pretty adamant about not giving in to a second chance until another character tells her what amounts to “let it go”. That’s the extent of the characterization in this film. If that wasn’t enough, Walt is also looking for other work and fighting against becoming addicted to painkillers.
None of this is to deny that there is rich potential in a character-study adaptation of Walt’s life, but amateurish filmmaking is on full display here, with genre-standard montages coming into play practically every ten minutes. The film is also edited in an unwieldy manner, rushing through nearly all of its story, suddenly deciding that it should shift from personal, adult-oriented drama to an uplifting, family-friendly underdog boxing flick about children overcoming the odds and coming to a realization of a glimpse of the potential they have within themselves, regardless of the circumstances they can’t control.
And yet, André Holland remains engaging no matter how hokey the material feels (it isn’t his fault this true story is being told as an assemblage of dialogue and plot cliches), notably when confessing his misdeeds to the children, coming to accept this new path, and attempting to help the kids navigate turmoil and loss. There’s also an entire movie that could have been made here about resisting the urge to fall back into addiction, something that’s limited to only one or two scenes.
When the children take over the narrative, it’s also disappointing that the boxing scenes aren’t necessarily engaging, but even worse, come down to a final tournament match (I have no doubts it happened that way in real life) that isn’t given the attention to complexity that it deserves, mostly since everyone here comes across as an unfinished sketch of a character in the first place. There are several battles in They Fight, the biggest being Sheldon Candis’ struggle with the narrative and how to tell this story.
Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
