BANG BANG
(director: Vincent Grashaw; screenwriter: Will Janowitz; cinematographer: Pat Aldinger; editor: Vincent Grashaw; music: Will Curry, Henry Nelson, James Wakefield; cast: Tim Blake Nelson (Bernard ‘Bang Bang’ Rozyski), Glenn Plummer (Darnell Washington), Andrew Liner (Justin), Erica Gimpel (Sharon), Nina Arianda (Jen, mother), Daniella Pineda (Officer Flores), Kevin Corrigan (John Eton), Will Janowitz (Dylan), Dana Namerode (Alex), Clayton LaDue (Marcus); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Cole Payne, Rana Namerode, Vincent Grashaw, Angelia Adzic, Will Janowitz; Traverse Media/HBO; 2024)
“Hard-hitting character study about a washed-up former boxing champ.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Vincent Grashaw (“What Josiah Saw”/”And Then I Go”) directs and Will Janowitz writes the screenplay for this hard-hitting character study about a washed-up former boxing champ, Bernard ‘Bang Bang’ Rozyski (Tim Blake Nelson), a Detroit legend. Since retired, the twitchy Bang Bang lives in poverty as he’s dealing with his inner demons, a drug addiction, alcoholism, a cynical bitterness, and the loss of his house. He also seeks revenge from an old grudge he holds against a fellow Detroit boxer Darnell Washington (Glenn Plummer), who took the featherweight title from him and became a rich man through promoting his juice blender on TV commercials to now running for mayor.
The Polish fighter once had a big following, a wonderful bartender/singer girlfriend (Erica Gimpel) and commanded respect, but that’s all changed since Washington came into his life.
When Bang Bang’s estranged adult daughter Jen (Nina Arianda) gets a job in Chicago and must go there for a few days, the court won’t let her take her juvenile delinquent teenage son Justin (Andrew Liner) along because he’s not allowed to leave the state without first serving his community service sentence. Her Plan B is to leave Justin with his estranged grandfather Bang Bang. The boxer sees this as a chance to get back into the fight business and talks the athletic-looking kid into letting him be his trainer so he can make some money and gets him a fight in a charity exhibition match sponsored by Washington. But the kid gets knocked out and hospitalized, and his plans to get back at Washington collapse and the kid’s mother has a fit.
The out-of-control Bang Bang has been pushed to his limit and packs a gun when he breaks into Washington’s luxury gated-home with the intention of killing him, but instead they brawl in the living room.
Tim Blake Nelson carries every frame of this cliched and implausible boxing pic and makes it a winner because of his knockout performance.
It played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 2/7/2026 GRADE: B
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