Broken Noses

The debut film by fashion photographer Bruce Weber is an offbeat documentary portrait of former Golden Glove boxing champ Andy Minsker and his club of teenage pugilists, skinny young boys age ten to sixteen learning maturity through the tender art of fist-fighting. The finished film looks as if it were allowed to discover itself during the production, beginning as a vaguely homoerotic study of the adolescent male physique, continuing into a flirtation with the sort of cruel, irreverent satire used in the early documentaries of Errol Morris, and finally emerging as a compassionate study of Minsker himself, whose natural charm and well-adjusted disposition would seem to contradict the popular image of his profession. In a series of unrehearsed encounters with family and friends Minsker reveals himself as an uneducated but streetwise innocent, completely unselfconscious in front of a camera but genuinely bashful about his starring role in the movie. Candid and touching, the film offers insight into both the American male psyche in general, and in particular one of its more unique exponents.

Bruce Weber, the photographer who's recently created an uproar with his hot, hot, hot, A&F catalogues tries his hand at movie making with a documentary portrait of Andy Minsker. Minsker is an amateur boxer, turned pro, who runs a boxing club for young men and boys in Oregon. Minsker is really not much more than a kid himself.

Minsker is a likeable guy and he and his family are presented in the honest, `I call them as I see them' style that is characteristic of rural lower middle class families in America.

As with any Weber product there is a generous helping of toothsome male skin in evidence. From the opening credits that include close-ups of each of the kids in his boxing club (the youngest is 8) to his horsing around with them in the water on a trip to a local beach we see a lot of Minsker and the kids in his club. It's all wholesome clean fun and we see Minsker being the best kind of role model he knows how to be.

Bruce Weber's first directorial effort is a beautiful mix of B&W cinematography and scintillating jazz songs. Weber's documentary focuses on Andy Minsker, a very attractive(and often silly)lightweight boxer, who trains a group of kids in his small boxing club in Oregon. Becoming role model to them all, he dedicates his time to help them become the boxers they aspire to be. Minkser's relationship with his parents and stepparents is also captured(he was raised in a broken home), and many times true feelings are revealed that have never before been uttered. The very camera friendly Andy is a delight to watch in this film, and at times he acts like a little kid as well. As with most of Bruce Weber's work, there's no denying the homoerotic feel; from the boxing club training to a play fight between Minkser and one of his trainees, there's always a hint of it. Fans of Weber's work will not be disappointed, and those looking for a good boxing documentary should check this one out. Filmed in B&W interspersed with color sequences.