Review: ‘Knuckle Draggers’

‘Knuckle Draggers,’ the feature film debut effort by writer/director Alex Ranarivelo, offers up a premise we’ve seen a hundred time before. Â  Maybe a thousand. Â  Boy loves girl. Â  Boy loses girl. Â  Boy turns to overly misogynist brother for advice on dating. Â  Brother opens boy’s eyes to the realities of the dating scene. Â  It’s indie film fodder that seems to be the go-to design behind thousands of films that have been or will be turned away from films festivals year after year.

The whole “dating scene in LA from the viewpoint of a group of guys” hit its stride and its peak with ‘Swingers,’ a film I’m sure Ranarivelo is sick of hearing about. Â  However, the shoe fits, and, try as it might, ‘Knuckle Draggers’ just isn’t in the same league as ‘Swingers.’

Generally, the acting is what really makes or breaks this kind of film. Â  Bad acting can make lines of dialogue revolving around relationships as painful as bamboo shoots under your nails. Â  Decent acting can give the film a comfort level that this type of film really needs to convey. Â  Great acting can make the film a modern classic. Â  The acting in ‘Knuckle Draggers’ falls in that middle range. Â  It’s never bad. Â  At its worst, the acting is forgettable, but the film’s leads hit their respective roles out of the park.

Ross McCall as Ethan, the Boy, plays innocent with the best of them, and Paul J. Alessi as Kyle, the chauvinist brother, hits the other side of the spectrum just as solidly. Â  Each actor inhabits his respective role, makes it his own, and generally feels comfortable in the work he is presenting. Â  When Alessi is saying Kyle’s lines of dialogue about how little we have evolved since the time of the apes, you genuinely believe what he is saying. Â  At the very least, you believe he believes it, and that’s really what matters.

Omar Gooding as the group’s “happily” married man also gives a superb performance despite a role that has been written countless times before. Â  Did he cheat or didn’t he? Â  He he go home with the drunk chick or didn’t he? Â  It really all seems moot at this stage of the game, since the outcome of his story is so unbelievably predictable.

In fact, much of ‘Knuckle Dragger’s is predictable, and that goes with the territory. Â  It doesn’t have to. Â  Ranarivelo could have easily turned the generalized concept on its ear by switching things up a bit. Â  Have some people break up that would generally stay together. Â  Have the couple that you know are going to break up from frame one of the film actually work things out before the end. Â  Give the film a bit of an edge that is, frankly, totally absent from this film.

Unfortunately,  Ranarivelo doesn’t push the edges of his film nearly enough, and ‘Knuckle Draggers’ comes off as neither an exceptional piece of filmmaking nor a scathing depiction of another, harsher reality.   Neither funny nor dramatic, it ends up being a film that tries to please all and, ultimately, pleases none.

One scene, only one, seems to have some sense of bite to it, and it involves a pool party thrown by a former “cast member” of ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ Â  It actually makes you feel there is more that could be explored in ‘Knuckle Draggers’ were the director not so afraid to offend anyone who watches it.

The film is middling, passable for a film about twenty-somethings and their relationships, and, sadly, it becomes quite forgettable soon after completion. Â  Save for the small handful of incredible acting found within, ‘Knuckle Draggers’ offers absolutely nothing fresh in both concept and execution.

Overall: 2 stars out of 5