All She Wrote

This is a movie I can't do justice to. Of all three Niki Iliev movies so far, 'Knockout' represents his best work. I really enjoyed the idea of an ex-fighter with a mental disability who earns his living out of music gigs, his old hobby. I have to admit, there is always something special about mentally troubled characters.

Gary Dourdon, without doubt, pulls off a fantastic Oscar-worthy performance. I have watched a few of his movies, yes, he has a charisma, but this is arguably his most profound one. The character of Aaron makes him reveal his true talents.

Good directing. I really liked the scene with Zhana walking on the streets of Bansko, as beautiful as she is, creating an interesting contrast with the ruins of a collapsed building seen in the background.

And the music is just awesome!

Bulgarian cinema is reviving. Slowly, obviously, but we have faith. Please, continue with the good work. Hopefully, Bulgarian cinema will get on the radar for those movie fans who have a sense for nicely told stories and terrific acting.

This Bulgaria-US sports romantic comedy is certainly irregular, but is not bad and very far from the disaster one may expect by seeing its awful rates. Plot and acting are pretty decent, and there are good enough gags and characters. In the core, a mentally ill couple, composed by a former MMA champ with memory and concentration disorder and a weird woman who has serious social phobia since her childhood, and her opportunist and unsuccsessful brother. There are also some attempts to innovate, with flahbacks and characters talking directly to the spectator. The film may be tepid and unremarkable, but may be enjoyed and has some good moments.

This story and film could have been better, or even very good, if they had bothered to be strategic in using unacceptable and inappropriate wordage for mental disabilities. The main character, Aaron, wasn't "crazy". He had brain damage from repeated blows to the head after being an MMA fighter for years. The main young woman, Zhana, wasn't "crazy". Her behavior suggested she was likely on the autistic spectrum, such as the comment by her brother Bobby to "not look her in the eyes". For some persons on the autistic spectrum eye contact avoidance is a behavioral pattern, as well as social and communication difficulties.

The school for "the retarded" Zhana was sent to as a child was "full of G*psies", we're "told" because they just wanted free food. Of course, there are people who still use that ethnic slur for Romani and Sinti peoples, and who call folks "retarded" and believe they have little or no use in the world, so films may portray such attitudes of course, but when the director and writers in no way make an effort to make a statement against such prejudice, that is a serious issue in my opinion. Especially in the case that Aaron carried on a commentary of thoughts with the audience throughout the film, correcting other ignorant beliefs, just not one of the main themes of the film.

The music performances by actor and artist, Gary Dourdan were excellent. He played the character's struggles with simple things very well, such as the things we may take for granted, like knowing the way home. The lighting and cinematography were really engaging for me. I love to see good street work, city scenes and the movement of traffic and peoples in New York, plus viewers were treated to scenes in Bulgaria. But besides the things above, I really found the Bobby's actions and choices repugnant and unsympathetic, such using her and also trying to get an obviously brain damaged man into the ring again just to further his own career. As inappropriate as I found Aaron's "therapist's" actions, unfortunately, too many psychologists or psychiatrists, do treat their patients or clients in an egoistic manner that is nothing about helping but only about controlling.

Gary Dourdan is a fairly good actor and was a great fit for the role. The soundtrack was excellent and I'll search if he has any albums, but the writing (too many, "you're crazy" and "we are just insane" and "I'll start taking my pills"), and the direction/progression was disjointed and distracting. I could get why Aaron might talk "to the camera", but randomly having other characters do so also was unnecessarily distracting.

Finally, although I didn't and don't expect every film to be an exposé on the dangers of normalizing derogatory terms for neuro-atypical people or the laziness of western society to medicate to oblivion anyone who is different, this story and film could have been so much better. It had so much potential. Overall, a 5 for the film itself, plus an extra star for Gary's performance, which made it believable.

I expected more from this movie after I saw the trailer, well I am a bit disappointed. I didn´t feel the connection between characters, I couldn´t relate to any of them or the story at all.. While watching I thought well, maybe something really inspiring is about to happen at the end but nope, the end is plain boring.. Sanya Borisova (the main female character) portrays her condition awfully, I didn´t get her at all. The great thing about this movie is the music, that was really cool. The story and scenario overall are just... meh.

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