MMA has quickly replaced boxing as the violent sport du jour for movie dramas. The theme tends to remain the same, however, with the fighter taking every punch life has to throw at them, while proving strong enough to keep getting up. And that certainly fits the bill for Embattled, a film that puts Stephen Dorff in the squared circle.
Directed by Nick Sarkisov, Embattled stars Dorff as an aging MMA champion who left his family behind to go off and make millions. Meanwhile, his eldest son is left behind to care for his younger brother, and decides the best way to do that is to become a fighter himself. The inevitable conclusion is a head-on battle between father and son,
This looks hella interesting to me, and I like Dorff in a role like this. There are considerable issues at play here, from abandonment to domestic abuse, so let’s hope the film can hold up under their weight.
Darren Mann, Elizabeth Reaser, Colin McKenna, Karrueche Tran, Donald Faison, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Ava Capri co-star.
Embattled hits theaters and VOD on November 20th.
SYNOPSIS: Raised by an abusive father, Cash (Stephen Dorff) channels his aggression to become a World Champion MMA fighter. Now accustomed to wealth, adulation, and global popularity, he faces a new challenge when his second son is born with Williams Syndrome. But this time, rather than stand and fight, he runs. While Cash continues to make his fortune in the ring, his eldest son Jett (Darren Mann) becomes the caregiver to his younger brother Quinn (Colin McKenna). When Jett decides to follow his father’s fighting footsteps and take to the fight game, he faces his past head on, embarking on a course inevitably pitting father versus son in a battle which, no matter the outcome, neither can win.
