Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story | Official Trailer | Substance<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While professional wrestling has always prided itself on being an acquired taste that revels in the exaggeratedly eccentric antics of its larger than life characters and surreal storylines, there’s something modestly grounded about Adam J. Wilde’s film that not only commands the earnest beauty of a group of committed wrestlers willing to sacrifice everything for an adoring audience, but also a thorough shadowing on the ins and outs of the industry at its most thanklessly tiresome level, with the company in question being the last of a dying breed of the many that once emanated from Cleveland, Ohio, Absolute Intense Wrestling, which convincingly has raised some of the industry’s most decorated stars who went onto its highest level. The film certainly takes an educational route with its historical backstories, particularly those that convey a deeper kind of significance for those involved, that outsiders simply wouldn’t understand, but for my money, as an already thoroughly knowledgeable pro wrestling fan of 35 years, I found its single most endearing angle to be its intimate accessibility on those fighting against an inevitable fate of age or injury that eventually comes calling on the vulnerability of battered bodies, providing an unforeseen emotional underlining for the film that helps transcend some of the barbaric brutality that its hardcore fandom relishes in like sharks circling deposited meat. In the same vein of previous wrestling documentaries like Beyond the Mat or Wrestling With Shadows, Slowburn Shoot provides an advantageous peek behind the curtain of a predetermined soap opera, that involves a lot of moving pieces to continuously keep matters running, but only with this film does the dedication, comradery, and especially urgency feel most glaringly evident between those involved, without the massive payday or prominent fame that comes with the biggest level of sacrifice to this thankless industry, instead appraising an appreciation factor for everyday people-turned-titans, whose adrenaline factor starts and ends at the curtain, before a tedious toll begins to stack on their ailing bodies. What’s most refreshing to this documentary, as opposed to its predecessors, is that its tone takes on a mostly uplifting and energetically positive personality, that only bends with some unforeseen developments in retirement, financial woes, and untimely tragedy, that aid the film’s loosely structured format in finding an empathetic angle to build towards triumph, with a refreshingly upfront and honest perception of the industry from those who live it every single day. This narrative would be compelling enough when told by those who work behind and in-front of the camera, especially the trials and tribulations of its owner and founder, John Thorne, whose testimonies speak of the undying allegiance that he has made to keeping the show going, but there’s an even grander scope of appeal in recalling household names like Britt Baker, Ethan Paige, and Eddie Kingston, to speak on their brief-but-impactful time within the company, allowing an upfront evidential argument for the cause and importance of grass roots companies like these, in the ways that they mold these athletes at their greenest level, during a time when nobody else believed in them or saw them as the superstars that they eventually became. Wilde’s relaxed direction allows these guests to speak their minds openly in ways that aren’t always glamorous to the intrusive lens, but certainly authentic in ways that speak volumes to the uniqueness of their respective challenges of catching on and keeping up, with each of them varying at distinctly differing times within their prosperous careers. Aside from thorough documentation, relaxed direction, and monumental speaking guests, the film is obviously executed with a shoestring budget, but I never found its overall presentation compromising in ways that lagged my compelling investment to the established narrative, with artistry among alluring photography, framing, and editing techniques that prospered professionalism to the legitimacy of this project. For the camera work, cinematographer Nicholas Weiss effortlessly immerses audiences in the depths of naturally enacted conversations between families and colleagues, the likes of which are documented with a fly-on-the-wall presence among them that seamlessly disappears into the backgrounds of overwhelming settings, and the editing from Jon Nix, while sifting through six years and over a hundred hours of captured footage, competently renders a cohesively compelling narrative to the film’s intended purpose, that revels long enough in certain subjects without a single one of them tediously overstaying their welcome, in turn conjuring impactfully elevating production values in the film’s favor, that submits visual flare in sporadic doses that are influential enough without taking away focus from the many aforementioned speaking guests. Finally, a meaningfully sentimental touch that I appreciated about the film was the way Wilde utilizes dramatizations, that typically adorn documentaries without the footage of the depicted event, to bring back to life one of its most integral figures behind the scenes, Christopher Bryan, A.K.A Chandler Biggins, towards the film. When the scenes begin from over the shoulder of Bryan’s perspective while talking into a microphone on a radio show or podcast, it feels like naturally ingrained stock footage from one of the many interviews that they took with him for the company, but as it carries on, it becomes painfully evident that they manufactured these moments to bring to life the rampant personality of one of its most cherished souls, and in a company that serves as a metaphorical revolving door to people and personalities who spend time within its hallowed halls, it’s nice to see concrete evidence of someone leaving a lasting impression amongst their peers, with the dramatizations themselves executed to not feel so glaringly artificial in the ways other documentaries execute them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While speaking on the production values, the pros far outweigh the cons of the movie’s cheaply enacted finished product, but even in the weaker components to the film’s documenting, the sound mixing and microphone placements never find a comfortable consistency to keep from obscuring some of the articulated dialogue within the perceptive conversations, with the worst of these moments transpiring over the first ten minutes of the film, where the production team feels overcome by environmental elements that overwhelm what should feel effortless. Most of the problem stems from some corresponding instrumental tones that simultaneously plays alongside guest depositions, in ways that override the clarity of their conveyed intentions every bit as much as the immersion over the depicted proceedings, and considering that I was watching this in a small auditorium with top tier sound quality, that I’ve never struggled with other movies in understanding words or accents, the problem (At least initially) stems from the production’s indulgence of tones held in simultaneous contrast of guest dialogue, where the assistance of subtitles could work wonders in easing the pressures of maintaining clarity throughout some of its most vital discussions. The mixing does eventually improve during the film’s second half, but even then the assorted microphones placed in and around family homes never seem to capture a close proximity to the conversations in ways that leave the interpretations feeling effortless, in turn outlining the single most glaring detraction to the movie’s favor, regardless of technological quality or inexperienced hands guiding their progress. Beyond scatterbrained sound schemes, the only other problem that I had with Slowburn Shoot pertained to its relaxed structure of storytelling, particularly during the first half, that deviates spontaneously between talking points with little to no structure throughout the framing of certain sections. While most of this is attributed to the aforementioned relaxed direction from Wilde’s storytelling that effectively illustrates the real-time spontaneities of the crazy world of steering independent wrestling, the truth is that I feel the film requires more stability during those initial story beats to capitalize upon an audience at the peak of their curiosity, leaving the film feeling a bit aimless during the first half hour, especially as it defines wrestling terminology and backstage roles that the hardcore fans are already privy towards. It is a problem that eventually fixes itself into the movie’s second half, especially once the aforementioned emotional arcs of Josh Prohibition deciding to retire, as well as Hornswoggle’s body literally shutting down on him, comes to fruition, but it nevertheless takes a little longer for the film to find its proper footing towards attaining the cunning momentum necessary to maintain audience investment, leaving those initial moments at the film’s introduction feeling a bit scatterbrained before nailing down a consistent narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story is a thoroughly introspective peek behind the curtain of a grassroots independent wrestling company, whose twenty year impact has not only made it a staple of dependency for Northeast Ohio entertainment, but also a source of creative inspiration for the bruised and battered athletes who pay the ultimate price to entertain its legion of die-hard enthusiasts. Despite some periodic problems of productional inconsistencies to its documenting, the film is nevertheless a highly entertaining and engagingly revealing look at the single most misunderstood outlet in sports entertainment, where heroes and legends are immortalized by the blood, sweet and tears that they leave in the ring, each and every night<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 7.1 or B-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Adam J. Wilde Starring – Britt Baker, Wes Barkley, Josh Bishop The Plot – An introspective documentary that goes behind the curtain, exploring the intimate relationships and untold stories that shape the pro wrestling industry. This film is currently not rated Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story | Official Trailer | Substance POSITIVES […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9644,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions\/9644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}