This is a very brutal flick of struggling and fighting people to make a survival in the most rednecked of rednecked you ess ofay you can get. its extreme poverty, its extremely violent expression, and the illusion that the fistest will survive, etches through the film. it is definately not a cosy familymovie, its not a love story, nor a comedy, even though the brutishness at times are put so on the edge that it makes you giggle in disbelief.. what relevans this film has to the american dream and american daily living ishall not say but it seems rather dark. what stands as a milestone for this film are the actors, they really put character to the characters, with their, at times , neolittic way of life and communication, in their fight or flight adrenaline driven livelihoods, makes you drift along with them. the filming , locations and editing are truly brilliant, and the filming are at times so freaking good that you feel your in there with the characters. its cold,wet,grey,and harnished atmosphere writes its own story next to the written one. very well done. even though the grumpy old man dont like this kinda raw violence, it made a deep impresion to me, i will recommend this .

Donnybrook it is a very dark drama, and well worth seeing. Ex-Marine Bell has a wife who is trying to get off drugs and 2 kids (a boy & a girl). His plan to improve their lot in life is to enter the Donnybrook, a bare-knuckles free-for-all fight contest where the last man standing will walk away with a $100k prize. The acting is superb, particularly Margaret Qualley (daughter of Andie MacDowell), who plays the sister of Frank Grillo's violent drug dealer. The characters in this film are very poor and struggle with violence, drugs, crime, all the things that are often common in the poorer communities across America. The bulk of this film is Bell's journey from his home in a trailer park to the site of the contest, and it's not an easy or straightforward path that he travels. He gets to the donnybrook, but it's the last 15 minutes of the film.

Someone clearly forgot that movies are supposed to be entertaining. Pretentious crap from a creative team completely out of touch with reality. Sure, there are pathetic meth head people with no futures in this world, but they seldom look like sculpted beautiful actors. The plot, dialog, acting, etc is so bleak, this movie is as deep as watching the TV while it's unplugged. I suppose you can insert your own narrative and try to say it's confounding, excellent art, like a choose your own adventure book, but ultimately this is a movie with zero relatable or realistic characters. It plods along for what seems like an eternity, never reaching any satisfaction. It'll make you pause the film and check the IMDB rating, review the Wikipedia synopsis, and question whether you'll even want to finish the film. Perhaps there is gold at the end of this rainbow, but the sweet release of silence after turning off this tripe is it's own reward. Pure crap. I'd give it ZERO stars for being unwatchable, if IMDB allowed for that.

I saw this movie last night at the TIFF. Nobody clapped at the end not believing what we just saw... Grim, dark and hard to comprehend story. Decent acting

This film tells the story of two men who struggle to make ends meet. They turn to a big fight to earn a big prize. The story is quite confusing to start with, as characters are not introduced. After figuring out who is who, it seems I can get into the story. But no. The pace is super slow, and the long slowly moving shots are just never ending. There is a shot where a young girl walk back and forth in a park for a minute. There is another shot of the boy walking up to a house to take a bicycle for a minute. These scenes are very out of place for a violent action film. In the end, I lost all interest in the film.

Frank Grillo can be quite scary - or at least play scary and evil as good as anyone else can. Jamie Bell is really good in this too (and he needs to be with Grillos character overtaking and really being a menace and presence here), though for me I always remember Billy Elliott when I see him. Not his fault and as said, he is quite good in this, it is just the perception one sometimes has. The movie is moody and dark. Some very bad things are happening to some good or at least rather innocent beings ... And all leads to the final fight! Quite literally also ... a Drama that does not hold back a punch and might challenge some viewers.

I was surprised at the review score after watching the trailer but I realize why now. It's really a pointless violent movie with almost no dialogue and even less story. Solid cast which makes you wonder what they were thinking when they signed up. It's like a Gone Baby Gone or Out of the Furnace type movie with no actual plot.

There isn't one thing in this movie that made any sense. Talk about disjointed, this is it. Want to watch a movie about low life speed freaks and total losers? Maybe this will be it for you, if you have a really low IQ. Frank Grillo as a buffed meth maker and dealer. Yeah right, like that made a lot of sense right there. Psycho Frank and his twisted sister. I would rather have seen them both in Leave it to Beaver, which would have made about as much sense as their roles in this movie. This there is total loser fighter dude who is just a dumb punk with nowhere to go. I felt like I needed to be in a run down trailer in a run down trailer park with a tornado on the way to appreciate this flick. Maybe I'll try to go find one and try to watch this movie again. Naw I was just kidding. No second go around for me. Once was too much.

A tale of strife in a rural part of America, where an ex-marine does what he can only do to survive and care for his family, it parallels with the life of a crazed family of Meth dealers looking for a way out as well, with contentious and evil methods, it leads to a big free for all at Donnybrook, a last man standing contest, where the ex-marine see a opportunity to use his skills to get his family out of squalor and find some redemption in his soul, but it all comes with a price for everyone involved, this one folks is not easy to watch, but you take it in and realize that there is a message somewhere within this film.

Greetings again from the darkness. Is it a coincidence that I'm reviewing this moving on Charles Darwin's birthday? "Survival of the fittest" could be the subtitle to writer-director Tim Sutton's bleak film adapted from the novel by Frank Bill. The film would have us believe that, once born into poverty and a hopeless existence, the only daily decisions to be made are: Do I try to survive another day? Should I kill myself? Should I kill someone else? Is that bleak enough for you? Sutton's film provides glimpses of each of the three questions, but mostly it's an expose' on the violence that is generated from a community of poverty, addiction, abuse, and crime. It isn't clear and doesn't matter which of those things comes first ... they all lead down the same path. Jamie Bell plays "Jarhead" Earl, a military veteran looking for an escape route for his young kids and his junkie wife (Dara Tiller). Having a knack for fighting, and an apparent ability to take a beating, Earl decides the only way out is by winning the $100,000 grand prize for the Donnybrook ... a no-rules bareknuckle cage fight. Of course his only route to the entry fee is via armed robbery. Have I mentioned this is bleak? Earl doesn't talk much, but he tries to protect his wife from the local meth dealer, a brutal savage named Angus (Frank Grillo, THE GREY) who has an awkward partnership with his younger sister Delia (Margaret Qualley, NOTIVTIATE) as they make the rounds taking care of business. Angus is the type that resorts to violence in every situation, and we witness his lack of value on human life is just about every scene he is in. Delia is a bit more complicated, as she longs for a way out, and accepts even a momentary reprieve. To top it off, we have a Detective Whalen (James Badge Dale, "The Pacific") who is "chasing" this brother-sister outlaw duo ... well at least he chases them between drug and booze fueled sidetracks. The story takes place in the rural Midwest with towns and people those on both coasts never give much thought. When Earl finally reaches the Donnybrook, we are treated to what appears to be a redneck Burning Man festival where the revelers only stop hooting and beer guzzling long enough to sing the National Anthem while the American flag waves. We are left not knowing if this is a commentary on poverty, male aggression, or the forgotten class. It has some tonal similarities to the excellent OUT OF THE FURNACE, but isn't close to that level. None of filmmaker Sutton's first 3 movies have found much of an audience outside of festivals, and it's a safe bet this one won't either.