An Emmy-nominated documentary cinematographer with credits including “Procession” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Robert Kolodny puts his expert eye for shooting nonfiction to playful narrative use in his feature directing debut “The Featherweight.” A meticulously designed, gutsily played biopic of world champion featherweight boxer Guglielmo Papaleo, better known as Willie Pep — covering not his 1940s glory days but his faltering attempt at a comeback two decades later — the film is convincingly fashioned as a candid all-access documentary, a promotional puff piece curdling before our eyes into an unintended study of mental breakdown.
So convincingly, in fact, that uninformed viewers chancing upon “The Featherweight” on the festival circuit may wonder exactly what it is they’re watching, not least if — in a realization of Pep’s own glumly stated fears — they have no idea who this once-celebrated sportsman was. Kolodny puts nary a foot wrong in his precise replication...
So convincingly, in fact, that uninformed viewers chancing upon “The Featherweight” on the festival circuit may wonder exactly what it is they’re watching, not least if — in a realization of Pep’s own glumly stated fears — they have no idea who this once-celebrated sportsman was. Kolodny puts nary a foot wrong in his precise replication...
- 9/20/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
There’s a story that Willie Pep, the protagonist of Robert Kolodny’s feature debut The Featherweight, likes to tell. It’s about a match with a kid, who, so awed by the boxing champion, asks for an autograph. The request flummoxes Willie. “I say, ‘Kid, get away from me, we’re boxing tonight. What are people going to think?’” The crowd came to see a fight, he reminds the junior. They need to put on a show.
As Willie (played by James Madio) talks about this moment, he gesticulates and pulls his audience — a small group of friends — to play supporting roles. It’s clear why the boxer likes to recount this tale. Nostalgia tempts him. It directs his moods, prompts his long monologues and drives Willie, at age 42, to stage a comeback.
The Featherweight is a fictionalized account of the real-life two-time featherweight champion’s attempts to get back in the ring.
As Willie (played by James Madio) talks about this moment, he gesticulates and pulls his audience — a small group of friends — to play supporting roles. It’s clear why the boxer likes to recount this tale. Nostalgia tempts him. It directs his moods, prompts his long monologues and drives Willie, at age 42, to stage a comeback.
The Featherweight is a fictionalized account of the real-life two-time featherweight champion’s attempts to get back in the ring.
- 9/3/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘The Featherweight’ Review: Robert Kolodny’s Debut Film Is as Agile as Its Irrepressible Protagonist
When the English soccer star Harry Kane finally decided to leave his childhood club Tottenham Hotspur and the Premier League this summer, much of England was up in arms. In doing so, Kane appeared to sacrifice his realistic attempt at breaking the division’s all-time goalscoring record. A couple more seasons, pundits said, would have done the trick. Immortality, and certainly a statue, would have come.
What Kane knows, and what his critics appear not to, is what really motivates elite athletes: not stats, glory. The same lust drives Willie Pep (James Madio), the titular featherweight boxer in Robert Kolodny’s nifty debut feature. Aged 42, Pep plots a comeback, six years after hanging up his gloves. Virtually all those around him, including trainer Bill Gore (Stephen Lang) and business manager Bob Kaplan (Ron Livingston), say this is a terrible idea. That his 220-10 win record, unheard of in the sport before or since,...
What Kane knows, and what his critics appear not to, is what really motivates elite athletes: not stats, glory. The same lust drives Willie Pep (James Madio), the titular featherweight boxer in Robert Kolodny’s nifty debut feature. Aged 42, Pep plots a comeback, six years after hanging up his gloves. Virtually all those around him, including trainer Bill Gore (Stephen Lang) and business manager Bob Kaplan (Ron Livingston), say this is a terrible idea. That his 220-10 win record, unheard of in the sport before or since,...
- 9/3/2023
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
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