Oz Rodriguez directed this film. Rodriguez is an Emmy-winner for his work on Saturday Night Live. His previous film was Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020), which was a genre flick centering on teenage kids of diverse backgrounds, but mostly of Latino descent. Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion are writers for Primo (2023), a series about a young Latino who gets advice from his uncles, a variety of older male figures. A lot of that same DNA from Rodriguez's film and Serrano's series is certainly present here. Instead of a monster film, the genre in question here is more martial arts and live-action anime or manga. This film is also a teenage coming-of-age story, much in the way Vampires vs. the Bronx was, as well as a comedy that leans more toward the tactic of young people spitting out vulgarity or curse words. It's comedy more in the vein of Superbad (2007) or anything from Seth Rogen. The genre aspects are more homage, flourishes of martial arts or live-action anime.
Tyler Dean Flores (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and When They See Us) stars as Miguel, a teenage boy in upstate New York who loves martial arts. He has posters of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. He's a fan of anime. The ironic thing is that Miguel doesn't want to fight in real life. His friends do. They get in a lot of scraps and they're proud of it or at least have normalized it. Yet, Miguel never jumps in. He never participates in his friends' street brawls, which is the right position, given that the fights are neither warranted nor justified. He does imagine himself doing fights, imagining himself as either Bruce Lee or even One-Punch Man from the manga of the same name.
Raúl Castillo (The Inspection and Army of the Dead) co-stars as Alberto, the father to Miguel and also a boxing coach at a gym in Syracuse. Because his son doesn't like fighting either in or outside the boxing ring, there is a bit of a distance between Alberto and Miguel. Alberto sees that Miguel's friends get into a lot of fights but because he loves boxing doesn't mean he likes what they're doing. Alberto points out that fighting inside the ring is a sport with rules and is safer than fighting outside the ring on the streets. Again, this is the right position, but the film spends most of its time running away from this position, even though Alberto states it early in the film.
In fact, this film wants Miguel to go from the right position to the wrong one. This film leads Miguel down a path of picking fights that are both unwarranted and unjustified, and the reason he's led down this path feel rather weak and lame. As such, it was difficult for me to get into the rhythm of this film. In other words, I don't think this film had the right amount of stakes to make me care about Miguel's titular desire. One could argue there aren't that much stakes in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), which is a film that came to mind while watching this one. That 2010 film did seem to have an elevated sense to it, an almost operatic romance at its core. This film doesn't seem to have that core relationship.
Christian Vunipola also co-stars as David De La Garza, the best friend to Miguel. He's the son of a Filipino boxer who has passed away. He's now being raised by his single mom. He has a younger sibling and he's prepping to go to college, which was a promise he made to his late father. David doesn't seem to have any aspirations to be a boxer, but he does train at Alberto's boxing gym. As such, David has a good relationship with Alberto. This seems to be a source of jealousy for Miguel, but the film doesn't play up this aspect. It only becomes a tossed out line at the end.
The core relationship would seem to be between Miguel and David. Yet, that relationship isn't underlined as it perhaps should have been to make it feel as core as perhaps it's meant to be. The problem is that Scott Pilgram vs. the World was 112 minutes and this one is only 75 minutes. This film is over 30 minutes shorter, which is a lot of time that this film doesn't have to underline Miguel's relationship with David or his other friends, including Imani Lewis (Vampires vs. the Bronx and Premature) who plays Cass, a fierce Black girl, and Suraj Partha (The Goldbergs and Modern Family) who plays Srini, an awkward Southeast Asian kid. Cass and Srini basically function as comic relief, tossing off funny one-liners. They're more joke machines than fleshed-out humans whose connection to Miguel or each other feel more than tenuous. They're more like part of a diversity checklist than three-dimensional characters.
If one wants to see a better version of a young Latino boy who is compelling to get into fights at school, one would probably be better off watching Cobra Kai (2018), co-starring Xolo Maridueña who is also starring in a big-budget, Hollywood superhero flick called Blue Beetle (2023). I would even recommend a teenage martial arts flick that came out earlier this year, that of Polite Society (2023), which has some gender-flipped parallels to this one. The difference though is that the core relationship in Polite Society is underlined better. It's a relationship between two sisters that you feel more than you feel any of the relationships here.
Finally, Sarunas J. Jackson (Good Trouble and Insecure) plays Armando, a character who is introduced as this former boxer who was recently released from prison. He lives across the street from Miguel. Everyone says that Miguel should stay away from Armando. At one point, Miguel does visit Armando and even goes inside his house. This reveals Armando might not be the person that most people assume. It also suggests a very interesting backstory there that the film doesn't explore. It makes Armando a more interesting character than anyone else. Yet, the film only gives him one scene of dialogue with Miguel. He could have been an alternative father-figure for Miguel, which would have complicated the plot in a more compelling way, but this film sadly doesn't go there.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 15 mins.
Available on Hulu.
