Three years in the life and career of Mark Kerr, a pioneer of mixed martial arts between the 1990s and 2000s. The brutal fights took their toll on the athlete, who developed an addiction to opiates to dull the pain during long tournaments in places like Brazil and Japan. At home in Arizona, his partner, Dawn, awaits him. A sincere love blossoms with them, but it's threatened by their fiery tempers and Mark's need to withdraw into himself to perform his job effectively. Important support comes from his friend and rival Mark Coleman, who introduced Kerr to the then-nascent world of the UFC, which promises even greater rewards.
Golden Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival 2025
"This is the first solo film for director Benny Safdie, after building a successful partnership with his brother Josh that took them from American independent cinema to the mainstream with excellent titles like Good Time and Uncut Gems.
What remains of the Safdies' now "half-finished" cinema is their extraordinary ability to generate a mood, to exist in that comical intersection between the most conventional narrative and the use of unexpected actors and characters that open the frontiers between the real and the grotesque, a space that leads straight to Harmony Korine.
In this case, there are many real fighters providing supporting roles, and even one who rises to the role of co-star: Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman, a subversive and original reimagining of a familiar character, and a symbol of the empathetic approach the film takes to the things of life—victory, defeat, standing side by side with someone." (Tommaso Tocci)
