Embattled

Embattled may be smarter than it looks, but it's still further evidence of the decline of human civilisation.

Part classic montage-showdown sports movie, part southern gothic Oedipal family drama, this decidedly peculiar but oddly compelling film is the proverbial curate's egg.

Sarkisov and screenwriter David McKenna ("American History X) give us fully drawn, realistic male characters slugging it out in a battle of male toxicity.

The father-son drama in Embattled might win some rounds, but the abundance of clichés leads to a loss overall.

Much like Dorff's overbearing Cash, the film is easier to take when it's not in your face.

An MMA drama with heart, conviction and a killer right hand jab, "Embattled" is a different kind of fighter story, one where the consequences of the fight are more important than the win-loss records of its fighters.

Flips sports movie tropes on it head in its portrayal of negative and positive masculinity clashing in and out of the cage.

Director Nick Sarkisov's Embattled is a punchy sports drama that delivers blow after blow. Stephen Dorff is fantastic as the MMA fighter who enters the ring to take on his 18 year-old son.

Embattled scores plenty of points and lands the perfect amount of emotional punches that you may not see coming.

Embattled has enough gritty realism about a dysfunctional and damaged family to make up for the occasional hokey dialogue and the far-fetched but not entirely impossible scenario of a famous MMA champ doing a high-profile fight against his son.