Carl Roberts 
“The Cut is a superb psychological thriller, featuring an epic performance from Orlando Bloom, but the star of the show is John Turturro without a doubt.”
The Cut is a psychological thriller that is possibly one of the year’s best films. Starring Orlando Bloom, Caitríona Balfe, and a legendary performance from John Turturro, the film is directed by Sean Ellis. It tells the story of a boxer ending his retirement to seek a championship title, undergoing a drastic weight-cutting regimen at the urging of his coach. While this may not sound like a thriller, it is deceiving. What the film contains is nothing short of truly disturbing.
PREMISE
Determined to win a championship title after coming out of retirement, a Las Vegas fighter begins a gruelling training and weight loss regimen under a demanding, unorthodox boxing coach.
THOUGHTS
This is a role that Orlando Bloom has never played before. The actor lost a staggering 35 pounds for his starring role. And boy, does it show. Bloom’s character simply has the name The Boxer throughout the film. At no time are we ever privy to knowing what his true name actually is. This lends the character a mysterious tone that we are never fully able to get to grips with. Add in the dramatic and disturbing scenes of what he puts himself through to make the weight for his fight, and the audience will never feel comfortable. This is a powerhouse performance from Bloom, one that we cannot forget easily after the credits have rolled.
Caitríona Balfe is superb as Caitlin. During the training scenes she is a massive part of, the actress shines through in a role that makes her a standout. Every emotion, every heartbreak she feels, and her anger and animosity towards Turturros’s character of Boz comes across as 100% genuine. Caitríona Balfe is a superb and brilliant actress in her own right, but here, she resonates with a passion that we cannot ignore. When she raises her voice or even loses her temper in the film, we see a bubbling inferno underneath the skin that is hard to control. Caitlin knows what Boz is doing is cruel and dangerous. But with the boxer constantly ignoring her advice, she feels helpless. And our hearts reach out to her.
JOHN TURTURRO
However, despite brilliant and heartfelt performances from Orlando Bloom and Caitríona Balfe, nobody can match John Turturro here. As Boz, Turturro gives us possibly his best ever performance. Boz really doesn’t care about his clients, viewing them as a simple payday. But his training regimes are cruel, brutal, and totally evil. From forcing the boxer to take pills to lose weight to forcing him to go without food or water, despite his weakening condition, Boz believes it is what he has to do. He even ropes in another client of his to force the boxer to take illegal supplements. And he shows absolutely no compassion for anyone or anything.
Turturro is a powerhouse here in a supporting role which deserves to be award-nominated. The way Boz schemes, cheats and pushes the boxer to the limits of endurance, almost killing him with his neglect, has us hating him throughout. It is a performance that needs to be seen to be believed. Even then, we can’t believe a person could be so cruel and heartless. Boz thinks he is doing right to get the boxer into the perfect shape. By the climax, we can see how his methods have destroyed the boxer before the weigh-in. This leads to one of the most disturbing and shocking scenes the film contains.
WRITING
The screenplay by Justin Bull, from a story by Mark Lane, feels simplistic. But it’s anything but. Bull has written a movie that we think will be a simple story of a man, past his prime, trying to get the redemption he craves. We are completely wrong. What he has given us is far from Rocky as you can get. He has written a film about how cruel a man can be, how low he can go to get what he thinks is his due. The psychological torture enforced on the main character shocks us to the core, making the film not so much a sports drama but a chilling psychological thriller that we are never sure exactly how it will end. Bull has written a brilliant, frightening and chilling story that we again cannot forget when the film ends.
DIRECTION
The direction from Sean Ellis is superb. The way he shoots the film, the training scenes and the characters is a sublime effort. The way he handles the events the script contains shows him to be a terrific filmmaker. With the torturous events the film contains, Ellis allows the actors to breathe, to become their characters, and to show the mental scars Boz is inflicting on all around him. The physical and psychological damage being perpetrated on the boxer isn’t shied away from but shown in full. There isn’t a shot that is wasted here; Ellis delivers in every sense. From the brilliant emotional scenes between Orlando Bloom and Caitríona Balfe, to the chilling scenes of Boz’s training regime, Ellis proves he has a keen directorial eye.
VERDICT
The Cut is a superb psychological thriller, featuring an epic performance from Orlando Bloom, but the star of the show is John Turturro without a doubt. It is one of those films that comes out of nowhere and takes the audience down a dark path they never expected. Without a doubt, this is one of those films that people watch and realise they have been through the emotional wringer throughout. The early scenes lull us into a false sense of security before inflicting us with a psychological roller coaster that we want to get off before it crashes. It leaves us breathless, wrung out, and completely shocked.
The climax to the film contains one of the most disturbing and shocking scenes before it slows down, allowing us to take a breath as the credits roll. By the time we leave our seats, we want to leave the film behind. Not because it is bad, but because it is a little too close to the bone, to the knuckle. For something we thought we’d see, the realisation that the film isn’t what we expected hits us like a sledgehammer. And that’s the beauty of it. Instead of receiving the standard fare, we have been given something that stuns us with its brutality, rawness, and shocking events. This is a movie that fully deserves its time in the spotlight. A knockout.
The Cut will be in cinemas from Friday.
Introducing Carl! As the News Editor at Future of the Force, Carl has been an invaluable member of our team since early 2016. His expertise and dedication have made him an integral part of our editorial staff. Beyond his professional role, Carl is a fervent supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an avid follower of pop culture. He has a deep passion for Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the iconic movie franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.
He can be found either at his neighborhood cinema, enjoying the latest releases on the big screen, or at home streaming the newest blockbuster movies.
