A One Mann’s Movies review of “Swing Bout” (2024) (From the 2024 Irish Film Festival, London).
The 3rd film I saw at the Irish Film Festival last weekend and the first non-documentary. “Swing Bout” is a gripping and brilliantly realised drama that is obviously filmed on a shoestring budget but is extraordinarily clever in getting around those limitations.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Swing Bout” Plot Summary:
A group of ‘swing-bout’ girl boxers wait in their dressing room hoping that they will get their chance at glory (or otherwise) in the ring if a slot becomes available. Meanwhile, the event promoter Micko (Frank Prendergast) and his brother Jack (Ben Condron) have their own issues to worry about as the Garda come calling.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This is not yet rated on the BBFC web site, but from the content – brief strong sex, violence, language – I think it would get a ’15’ certificate.)
Talent:
Starring: Ciara Berkeley, Chrissie Cronin, Sinead O’Riordan, Ben Condron, Frank Prendergast, Johnny Elliott, Megan Haly, Niamh Cremin.
Directed by: Maurice O’Carroll.
Written by: Maurice O’Carroll.
Running Time: 1h 30m.
“Swing Bout” Summary:
Positives:
- A really clever script that subverts all the norms of a “boxing movie”.
- Superb acting performances from a largely unknown team of actors.
- A really great music score.
Negatives:
- There is a “side-betting” part of the plot, which really doesn’t quite ring true for me.
Review of “Swing Bout”:
A powerful opening.
Director Maurice O’Carroll has an eye for striking images and the opening of the film really delivers. The strikingly attractive Ciara Berkeley, as our heroine Tony, is shot against a plain orangey/brown background listening to a motivational audio recording. (Yes, OK, this feels like its been stolen from the opening of “Booksmart“, but it really works well so I can’t knock it!)
We then very effectively get introduced to the main protagonists with the spiky (but inwardly insecure) Vicki (Chrissie Cronin) verbally assaulting Tony while their respective coaches, Vicki’s dad Bomber (Johnny Elliott) and Emma (Sinead O’Riordan), try to maintain the peace.
So, what is a Swing Bout?
We are in the world of ‘Swing Bouts’ here, which I’d never heard about before. These are ‘filler’ fights in a boxing schedule for when the ‘main event’ fights finish early or are cancelled. So the paired fighters have to be prepared, both mentally and physically, to go into a bout at short notice. In this case, two pairs of girls are waiting: Tony vs Vicki and Mary Malicious (Megan Haly) vs Bernie Breen (Niamh Cremin).
Terrific performances
I was just so impressed with the acting performances of the four girls in the piece, none of who have a huge deal of acting experience (although I notice Megan Haly has a small part as a cashier in “We Live in Time“, which is another pre-release film I’ve seen). Both Ciara Berkeley and Chrissie Cronin (aka Christiane Reicke) have a strong screen presence whereas Megan Haly has the most acting heavy-lifting to do and pulls it off admirably. A scene where she breaks down in a toilet cubicle is a cracking little bit of acting.
In the ‘adult’ section of the cast, O’Riordan, Elliott and Prendergast are all good with Ben Condron being particularly good as the slimeball hustler Jack in a rather snazzy jacket. (Condron was at the event and I asked him if he got to keep the jacket! But he said that with all the fast food on set he ballooned in weight during the production such that the jacket became torture and he never wanted to see it again!)
A boxing film without the boxing?
Boxing films are obviously expensive to film. You need to hire a big venue, fill it with expensive extras and shooting all the different angles will take a long time. Not something this film could feasibly do. But it manages to circumvent this problem in a really ingenious way. You do get to experience the girl’s fights… in a fashion. And you do get a filmed fight in the finale, although not perhaps the one you expect. It’s ingenious. It’s gripping. And you almost need to watch the film a second time to allow all of your senses to take it all in.
With its claustrophobic setting and limited cast, it reminded me a lot of the wonderful “Boiling Point“, although it was obviously not filmed as a ‘single take’. (Maurice O’Carroll might want to consider that for the Hollywood remake if someone offers him bag fulls of money to film it again! As it is all in real-time, that approach would really work well!)
All kudos to O’Carroll who clearly had a passion for the project. He said in the Q&A that given the disruptions of Covid he would have “made this film with my iPhone in a shed if I’d had to”.
Great editing and music.
A couple of additional aspects I wanted to praise were the editing (by Maurice O’Carroll himself) and the music (no… not by O’Carroll – I’m sure he wanted to! – but by B.K. Pepper).
With the editing, there is one scene in particular where Tony is shadow-boxing against Emma’s pads and Vicki is shadow-boxing against Bomber’s pads, but it is cut together so cleverly that it really looks as if they pair are slugging it out together. It’s a terrific piece of film-making.
The music also has an unusual quality to it which perfectly supports the action. In particular, towards the end of the film when the tension is ratcheted up significantly you suddenly realise that the music is doing some of that heavy lifting through a torturously nagging little accompaniment. It’s sufficiently out there that I expected Pepper – and this is his feature debut score – to be some young black rap artist. But Pepper turned out to be an urbane and very polite middle-aged white guy when I briefly met him at the event!
Illegal betting
The one aspect of the story that didn’t quite ring true for me was some illegal ‘insider’ betting that Emma places on a fight. The size of the wager and the confidence of the bet just didn’t work for me.
Summary Thoughts on “Swing Bout”
This is a little gem of a movie with a great cast, clever direction and an interesting plot. As the inspirational tape says “No tree can grow to heaven unless the roots reach down to hell” and there’s more roots than branches in this one!
As readers will know, I don’t give out 5 stars very often and I find myself a little surprised I’m doing so for this one. But it is such a tight and clever premise for such a ‘small’ film that I feel its justified. I mean, “Gladiator 2” is great (review to follow). But this shows you don’t have to spend $250 million dollars on a movie production to deliver something that solidly grabs your attention for 90 minutes.
I’m not a boxing promoter… but I will be promoting this film to as many industry contacts as I can to try to get it a UK distribution: because this is one that people need to see!
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Swing Bout”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awDzy9v_kDs.
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