Your Movie Library
Cast
- Liev SchreiberChuck Wepner
- Naomi WattsLinda Wepner
- Elisabeth MossPhyllis Wepner
- Ron PerlmanAl Braverman
- Jim GaffiganJohn Stoehr
- Michael RapaportJohn Wepner
- Pooch HallMuhammad Ali
- Morgan SpectorSylvester Stallone
- Jason JonesArty
- William HillPaddy
Recommendations
- 80
The Guardian
Falardeau draws exceptional character work from his cast. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Falardeau, who made his mark with the Oscar-nominated teacher-student tale Monsieur Lazhar, again brings real tenderness to his portrait of a man in trouble. - 80
Screen Daily
The ‘I could have been a contender’ brand of sports movie gets a twist in this tasty, if minor-key, biopic. - 75
The Film Stage
The Bleeder isn’t attempting to reinvent any wheels, but it is consistently gripping — slick as a skip rope and just one hell of a story. - 75
The Playlist
Very well-made, very sweet-natured and very, very familiar: how strange that Philippe Falardeau‘s The Bleeder, a based-in-truth film about pretty much the definition of a confrontational sport —boxing— should feel cosy as a down comforter from beginning to end. - 70
Variety
The film is most thoughtful, and sometimes even painful, as a study of the pitfalls (and pitiful rewards) of local celebrity. - 60
CineVue
This affectionate portrait in failure is more in the tone of Darren Aronofky's Venice winner The Wrestler, carried mainly by a brilliantly swollen performance by Schrieber, full of humour and bluff and yet with an intelligence to learn his lessons, slowly, but learn them. - 50
We Got This Covered
The Bleeder is a surface-value, party-first boxing dramedy that pulls its punches and goes too far into "charismatic sleazeball" territories.
