Punch

Good movie!

Good movie!

Good movie!

It can be hard to be gay no matter where you are. Conservative or Moderate and even liberal, small minds make you want to leave. In this small town jobs are disappearing by the second so the father does what he can to help his son (Jim) get free via boxing. Though in a backwards way. Jim is becoming strong of mind but he is still naive and he is learning who he is what he wants likes making videos. Whetu is good, artistic and edged due to how the world treats him due to his sexuality. And the mistakes we make that lead to bigger consequences even when we try to do good, survive and just be emotionally well and free. This movie is about the attempt to persevere and the drive to figure yourself out even when horrible things are ocurring around you. To find the path and walk it to the other side and when you get there to breath air that tastes like your first drink of water. But sometimes we don't get there. Or we don't get there the way we originally thought we would.

I saw the trailer for this and read the synopsis so I was hopeful for a decent gay drama. Punch wasn't terrible but it wasn't great at the same time. Jordan Oosterhof was a steady lead actor in this film. The story was weak at times and some of the antagonists were a bit on the wooden side. It would have been good to see the bad guys get a proper comeuppance for their horrific actions. Of course it was watchable but not a film to revisit too many times. If you are expecting a lot of boxing scenes then you are likely to be disappointed, although there was a Rocky style work out montage rip-off scene which was fun.

Three stars for Conan Hayes and occasionally Jordan Osterhof. Conan and his character pull this film from the unthinkable, unwatchable disaster it is. Punch. The telltale name suggests you will get quite a literate intellectual and emotional punch delivered just to your door, with no delay. Do the producers get off on the violence they bring on screen? How many more hate crimes do we have to depict in such meticulous snd thought-out detail, how many more scenes of despicable fights, misery and human atrocities do we have to stuff the cinematic legacy with? The blood gushing out, the bone breaking fist fights, the heinous rape with no warning, any other monstrosity that comes to mind? Rest assured, it's in this film. I believe LGBTQ+ representation on film should be done cognizant of what came before, as well as how the content being produced influences the present what it insinuates. Upon watching "Punch" I can hardly imagine the idea behind the work, other than bringing some good-old hardcore violence, yet again making the queer people watching and everyone else involved feel awful. Why? And while the small-town homophobic gore plot has already been used in a million other productions, there is a way to depict such struggle (emotional and physical!) without imposing on the viewer the gut-wrenching scenery for most of the movie. Living in such environments is extremely isolating and emotionally debilitating, which unfortunately is not nearly shown in "Punch". The sweet openly gay Maori student enjoys his life in a remote hut, frequently walking around the town not caring what other people think. He finds a friend in a macho competitive boxing highschooler. While the nature is breathtaking and there is great chemistry between the lead actors, the film is broken down by choppy and redundant cinematography. I wish this movie showed an endearing love story of two young teens exploring the world in spite of the constraints of a close-minded reality, but it fails to connect the dots.

It is difficult for me to understand some of the negative reviews that have been made here. This movie is a gem that has been kept secret. First and foremost, the cinematic experience takes place in a little town located in New Zealand. It provides a look into their lives in that seemingly small town located in the middle of nowhere. As a result, it provides us with an understanding of how far New Zealand has come and their viewpoints on LGBTI issues compared to Australia, the USA, or many European countries, on a positive note, despite the fact that New Zealand is a very tiny country and even though homophobia exists in such rural areas as the film also shows. This is another value added by the film when viewed in this social and cultural context. The performances of young actors are really impressive. The father, along with two other significant characters, give outstanding performances. It would have been possible for the movie to delve more deeply into love scenes or create a happy ending, but those are questions that are left up to your imagination to answer. Hence, I gave it 9 out of 10. Gay movies can end with a happy finale which never does.

This movie had a decent enough premise, good acting, some beautiful visuals and atmospheric cinematography, but it was ultimately let down by the awful screenplay. Firstly, the movie was too long. Some scenes were unnecessarily dragged out, some scenes were just plain unnecessary. Also, some lines were cringy and unrealistic, and some twists and turns of the story didn't feel natural at all. Another issue is that the characters personalities have continuity problems; they seem to do things out of character a little too often for the viewer to really develop any understanding of them. This isn't the actors fault, who do their best with the script and deliver reasonable performances. The problem, as mentioned, is the script. Some developments just don't make sense. There are a lot of loose ends too. I'm all for leaving some things to the imagination of the viewer, not everything has to be spelled out, but this movie really takes the cake. At 1 hour 38 minutes long, you'd think there would be enough time for a satisfying end for a simple story like this one. Unfortunately, so much of the beginning and middle is wasted on boring scenes that don't add anything to the story, and then the end is an odd sequence of disjointed what-nexts for the main characters. The writer really needs to get someone sensible to make sure their story checks out before going to production, and they also need to get a decent editor to chop and organize the scenes properly. I had big hopes when I heard Tim Roth was in this movie but he really wasn't given a lot to work with. Overall a disappointing movie which could've been a lot better.

In a seaside small town, 17-year-old Jim is an aspiring boxer, training for his 1st professional bout. HIs coach is his father Stan, whose boxing gym has only Jim as its client, his day job is disapppearing, and (unknown to Jim) is dying of cancer. Mostly Jim sees his father as a repeated drunk, and he gets enticed to switch coaches. Jim is also distracted by his girlfriend, who keeps wanting more of his time. But in his training runs, he meets becomes mates with Whetu, a Maori living on his own in a shack. Openly gay, Whetu is bullied, harassed, and worse, and wants to leave town immediately upon finishing school. While Jim spends a lot of time with Whelan, Jim can't stand up for, or defend him. As Jim prepares for his fight, he has to navigate his feelings towards his father, his girlfriend, and his new mate. The scenery is nice, and the lead role is well acted. Also, as Whelan complains, the "straight boy" keeps going around shirtless, showing off his tempting body. There may be a bit too many training scenes, at the expense of more character development. Still, a decent gay coming-of-age story.

My first problem was the enormous difficulty I had in believing for even a nanosecond that Conan Hayes playing Whetu was a Maori. The second was imagining that twenty six year old Jordan Oosterhof as Jim Richardson was a seventeen year old boxer. Yes, he was fit and did a good impression of punching to a lay person like me but his pretty face, with its unbroken nose, was completely unconvincing. The other unconvincing thing was the burgeoning friendship between Whetu and Jim. That Jim put his arm round Whetu in front of small-minded townsfolk just didn't compute. Even more so when this gave Ron leverage over him. Tim Roth as Dad gave a good performance but what else what would we have expected? The cast tried their best with a mediocre script that just didn't gel with the supposed characters of the players. Lyrical outbursts were just not appropriate to the personalities of the situation of a small hick town. As the film rushed to its conclusion, few loose ends were resolved. Arson, betting, breach of contract, imminent death, relationships. Everything was left in the air. While we were wondering about this, the film ended with the performance of a song of such cloying sentimentality that I nearly gagged. So, there were a few good moments but most of the film was incoherent. I cannot really recommend it.