TV Review - Bruiser (2023) | The-m-report

This is the first feature narrative under the Onyx Collective. The Onyx Collective is a brand or label, owned by The Walt Disney Company, which has a goal of distributing projects, created by people of color or underrepresented or marginalized groups. It began in 2021 and is led by Tara Duncan who is one of the few Hollywood executives who is Black. She's mainly worked in cable television and streaming services for the better part of 20 years. She oversaw Summer of Soul (2021), which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Filmmaker Miles Warren makes his directorial feature debut at the age 25. It's based on his 2021 short film. He adapted it into this feature that made its way to the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The short film had been about a younger, African American boy who witnesses his father commit a violent act at a bowling alley, which causes the boy to act out himself, trying to be tough like his father. The feature expands and complicates things.

Jalyn Hall (Till and All American) stars as Darious, a 14-year-old, Black boy who seemed to have finished the 8th grade at a private boarding school. His mother picks him up and drives him to their country home for the summer. He's divided because he has a girlfriend in the city where his school is and he's more alienated from his friends in the country. He becomes even more alienated after one of his friends picks a fight with him and beats him up.

Shamier Anderson (Stowaway and Bruised) co-stars as Malcolm Garter, the stepfather to Darious. He owns a car dealership, but business isn't great and he's been struggling financially. Paying for Darious' school is also a struggle. It's revealed that Malcolm came from an abusive home and had issues with his father. When Malcolm was younger, he would act out in violent ways, picking fights and being highly aggressive. However, he's changed over the past decade or so. He's a respected businessman now, a regular church-goer and devoted husband and father.

The conceit of this film is that Malcolm became the stepfather to Darious after he married the woman that his best friend impregnated. Actually, the friendship between Malcolm and Darious' biological father isn't fully defined but the impression is that they grew up together, worked together and were somewhat close. For Malcolm to then marry his best friend's woman feels weird for a best friend to do, even though I've heard about things like that happening in real life.

Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight and Mike) also co-stars as Porter Jackson, the biological father to Darious. The reason Porter's best friend married Porter's woman is due to the fact that Porter basically abandoned her and their child shortly after that child was born. He's been gone with no contact for about 13 years or nearly the entirety of his son's life.

He returns and is squatting, likely illegally, at an abandoned house boat. He's not even trying to contact his son when Darious accidentally runs into Porter. The majority of the film is Porter trying to spend time with Darious, while Malcolm tries everything he can to keep them apart. It becomes a kind of tug-of-war between father and stepfather with Darious in the middle. Each one tries to convince Darious of how the other is either not worthy or too dangerous to be Darious' sole father figure.

Warren does a good job of rendering that tug-of-war, showing the pull that Darious would have for each one. Warren also does a good job of ratcheting the tension until things boil over. However, Warren ratchets that tension by side-stepping certain obvious things. Warren gives space for all three of the male leads to shine and give incredible acting performances. Ironically, the aspect ratio is more 4:3, which seemingly boxes them in, but Warren doesn't box these characters in. He gives them nuance over who's right and who's wrong, as well as this idea of taking one's lumps.

It's strange though because Darious never seems to ask some obvious questions about the situation. First, he never asks Porter directly why he left and why he never tried to contact him, even after he returned. Darious never asks if they would be having a relationship if Darious hadn't accidentally found him. Darious never asks why he's back and why is he living in an abandoned house boat. How is he supporting himself? Maybe Darious doesn't care about those questions, but it's crazy that Malcolm wouldn't have brought them up. Given the tension between Malcolm and Porter, it's surprising that Malcolm doesn't even bring up the issue of child support.

Cinema hasn't provided us too many examples of a coming-of-age story involving a prepubescent Black boy. The first third of Moonlight (2016) is now a prime example. What few examples through cinema history like Boyz N the Hood (1991) or The Inkwell (1994) involve Black boys way past puberty. Some great options have been George Washington (2000) and The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (2013), but they haven't been about the Black father-son dynamic. This is a wonderful entry that goes against the media stereotypes of Black fathers and sons.