Bruiser Review

Streaming movie review

Conversations around fatherhood and masculinity have become increasingly common recently. As roles and norms shift, how we talk about what makes someone a real man or a real father has also shifted. Instead of the patriarch who is the sole provider and ruler of the roost, things are moving toward more of a partnership between married folks. Instead of force being de rigueur, there is a move toward using kindness to sort out disagreements. But with any social change, there will always be discussion about how to adjust. I appreciate nuanced looks at these topics, so I was anxious to see how director Miles Warren would treat them in his first feature film “Bruiser,” currently streaming on Hulu.

Darious (Jalyn Hall) is home for the summer from his posh boarding school. His father Malcolm (Shamier Anderson) is encouraging him to interact with the kids who live in his town. After Darious gets into a fight with one of the local kids, he wanders off and meets a man named Porter (Trevante Rhodes), a loner who lives on the river. When Darious tells Malcolm and his mother Monica (Shinelle Azoroh) about this meeting, they plan a meeting with Porter.

It turns out that there is a strained relationship between Malcolm and Porter that puts a strain on both of their relationships with Darious. He must sort out the truth of what each of these two men who he admires are saying about the other, and in the midst of that, figure out what it means to be a man.

This is a beautiful, powerful film. The story is fairly straightforward, but it is told with care and empathy. It is gorgeously shot, and framed.

Something I rarely talk about, but have to mention for this film is the score. It is a wonderfully crafted bit of music, and I loved how well it underlined the rising action through this film. There is a sense of tension creeping toward the final, inexorable confrontation between Malcolm and Porter, and the score keeps us in that sense of unease throughout. 

The performances are all lovely. Hall is a phenomenal young actor, recently playing Emmett Till in the movie “Till.” I will look forward to seeing more of him as he develops his skills which are already considerable. Both Anderson and Rhodes have an intensity in all of their scenes that do a marvelous job displaying the tension between the men they were, the men they want to be, and the men that society expects them to be. 

This was an impressive movie, because while the end felt inevitable, I also maintained hope that something different could happen. It never left me feeling hopeless, even when the end came. There are times when things feel hopeless in our lives, particularly as time marches on and social change struggles to happen. This movie is a powerful reminder that we do not have to be held captive to the past and that we can all find our own path to peace and contentment.

This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on March 11, 2023.