Punch *** (2022, Tim Roth, Jordan Oosterhof, Conan Hayes) – Classic Movie Review 12,723

The excellent New Zealand drama film Punch stars Jordan Oosterhof as 17-year-old Jim, who is training with his boozy dad (Tim Roth) for his first pro fight. But Jim has a life-changing rethink after getting involved with gay Maori teen Whetu (Conan Hayes).

Writer/ director Welby Ings’s excellent New Zealand sports/ gay drama film Punch stars Jordan Oosterhof as 17-year-old Jim, who is preparing for his first professional fight with the help of his boozy, burnt-out old dad Stan (Tim Roth), himself a former professional boxer, now trainer.

But things change when Jim begins a life-changing rethink after getting involved with aspiring singer Whetu (Conan Hayes), a gay Maori teen who lives in a shack at the beach. Unfortunately, even in nice New Zealand, the townsfolk take a dim view of the boys’ relationship. There’s a bit of a toxic male ‘culture’ going on.

Next thing you know is Whetu is being beaten and raped by Jim’s boxing promoter and buddies. In an unlikely turn of events, Stan accepts that Jim and Whetu have a relationship and that all that matters to him is Jim’s happiness. Satisfyingly, the boys later get revenge by blowing up the promoter’s car. But it doesn’t stop there, of course, as the promoter is up for a third round of retaliation.

It is Ings’s feature debut. A warm-hearted film centred on boxing, it is unusual and life-affirming, the kind of film you can take to your heart. Oosterhof and Hayes are very persuasive, both tremendous. Main star Roth is fine but the role is supporting and unrewarding. The only real reservations against the film might be that it uses cancer as a convenient, unconvincing plot device and the rather disappointing ending, which doesn’t have the emotional surge you expect, or are hoping for. Otherwise, though, and overall, just great, even if the first hour or so of the film is the best part.

The cast are Tim Roth as Stan, Jordan Oosterhof as Jim, Conan Hayes as Whetu, Abigail Laurent as Chelsea, Connor Johnston, Sage Klein as Amber, and Wilson Downes as Riley.

It was shot in Auckland, New Zealand, from November 2020 to July 2021. It was released on 30 July 2022. It premiered at the 2022 New Zealand International Film Festival.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,723

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