Mildred Burke biopic stars Emily Bett Richards

Wrestling photos are trending. Last year we saw excellent, albeit unfairly overlooked, results iron clawabout the ill-fated von Erich brothers. Now comes Ash Avildsen’s very entertaining old-school biopic about Mildred Burke. If you don’t know who Burke is (and the vast majority probably don’t), this movie aims to rectify that. Burke was a pioneer of the sport and the first million-dollar female athlete in history, winning three women’s world championships from the 1930s to the 1950s, a time when women’s wrestling wasn’t even legal in most of the United States. Her story deserves to be told, and queen of the ringsAs the opening night film of the 39th Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, it largely does it justice.

Adapted from Jeff Leen’s 2009 book with the exaggerated title The Queen of the Rings: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds and The Making of an American Legend (try mounting it on a marquee), movie star Emily Bett Richards (arrow) as Burke’s breakout performance. We first see her as an unwed teenage mother working as a waitress in a Kansas diner under the watchful eye of her mother (Cara Buono). But Millie, who has strong muscles, dreams of becoming an entertainer. Since she couldn’t sing or dance, she saw wrestling as her way out of her troubles.

When promoter Billy Wolf (Josh Lucas) drops by with his touring wrestling show, she takes the opportunity to ask for a match with one of his male wrestlers, leaving him with Deeply impressed. The suspicious Billy lets her compete for his own amusement, but he begins to trust her when she defeats a much more powerful opponent. He immediately took her under his wing and she began competing in one match after another at carnivals across the Midwest.

Along the way, she and Billy fell in love and got married. However, the relationship soon fell apart when he began cheating on her with several other female wrestlers he added to the roster. She agrees to stay married to him, but only as a business arrangement, and to marry his son G. Bill (Tyler Posey, Tyler Posey, teen wolf), has long admired her.

At a press conference during the festival, writer-director Avildsen ruefully commented that the story should have been told in the form of a miniseries, and that an hour was cut from the film’s running time. The results are evident on the screen as shown below queen of the rings Ironically, it has an episodic quality that makes it feel longer than it actually is.

As more characters are added, including Mae Young (the compelling Francesca Eastwood), Elvira Snodgrass (Marie Avgropoulos), Joan · Byers (real wrestler Kelly Farmer, making her screen debut), Nelle Stewart (Kelly Berglund) and other female wrestlers), Gladys Gillum (Danny Bola Ann Woll) and Bubba Wingo (Damaris Lewis), one of a trio of black female wrestlers—the narrative’s discontinuities become apparent. You’ll find yourself trying to keep up with the romance and business plots, which sometimes seem to come out of nowhere.

But it ultimately proves not to be too harmful, thanks to the engaging nature of the story itself and the cinematic quality of the rendering (which is not to say that considerable liberties were not taken). The wrestling scenes are particularly visceral, and the actors, especially Rickards, show such intense physical commitment that it’s easy to imagine how much care must have gone into it off-screen. (The filmmaker may have inherited his talent for fight scenes, as his father, John Avildsen’s directorial credits include Loki and three karate kid Movie. Martin Kove, one of the stars of the latter series, plays a colorful supporting role here.

Despite its low budget, the film looks great, effectively conveying its retro feel thanks to Andrew Strahorn’s handsome, sepia-toned cinematography and Sofia Meicek’s impeccable period costumes background. The performances proved to be as strong as ever, with Adam Demos playing Mildred’s loyal friend “Gorgeous George,” who has since gone on to fame and fortune, and Walton Goggins Goggins as wily rival promoter Jack Pfefer, and young heartthrob Gavin Casalengo.The summer when I became beautiful) as Mildred’s adult son. But ultimately it’s Rickards who handles the physical and emotional intensity of the character with consummate skill, giving the film its heart and soul.