7.2 /10 1 Votes7.2
85% Rotten Tomatoes Cinematography Ryan Samul Initial release 19 April 2014 | 5.4/10 IMDb 3/4 Roger Ebert Screenplay by Noah Buschel Edited by Jennifer Ruff Director Noah Buschel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Produced by Samantha HousmanLouisa RungeSusan A. Stover Starring Corey StollBilly CrudupMarin IrelandYul VazquezKelly Lynch Producers Louise Runge, Samantha Housman, Susan Stover Nominations Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Cast Similar Corey Stoll movies, Boxing movies, Dramas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Glass Chin is a 2014 American crime drama film written and directed by Noah Buschel, starring Corey Stoll, Billy Crudup, Marin Ireland, Yul Vazquez and Kelly Lynch. It premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Contents
Plot
Bud Gordon, a burned-out former boxing champ, trains Kid Sunshine, an up-and-coming welterweight contender, and collects debts for JJ Cook, a slick Manhattan entrepreneur. Bud soon finds himself framed for murder, having to choose between his integrity and his aspirations.
Cast
Production
Shortly after Corey Stoll finished filming the first season of House of Cards, Noah Buschel recruited him to play the lead role in Glass Chin. Stoll had previous boxing training from his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in the 2011 film Midnight in Paris. He trained for three weeks at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York. Billy Crudup was given the script by Yul Vazquez, who had previously worked with Buschel.
Buschel categorizes the film "in the ex-boxer genre of Budd Schulberg's On The Waterfront, Jim Thompson's After Dark, My Sweet, and Walter Mosley's Leonid McGill books.” The film was shot all over New York City, including in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in New Jersey, on a Red digital camera. It was Buschel's third film with cinematographer Ryan Samul.
Release
Glass Chin premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2014, where it was one of 12 films selected for the World Narrative Competition. It was given a limited theatrical release on June 26, 2015.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critics' approval rating of 85 percent based on 20 reviews and an average rating of 7/10. Metacritic rated it 64/100 based on 10 reviews. The performances were widely praised, those of Stoll and Crudup in particular. The Los Angeles Times said the film is fueled by "punchy dialogue, sharply drawn characters and excellent performances," and that Buschel's directing gives it "a distinct place in the often derivative world of neo-noir." Indiewire called the film "the work of an underappreciated and sharp filmmaker" and "one of the strongest films ever to grace the international narrative competition at the Tribeca Film Festival," giving it an A-. Slant Magazine gave it 4 out of 5 stars, The Village Voice called it "A rich character study that captures the inner lives and unexpectedly astute insights of brusque, macho, old-school New York guys and the women in their lives." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "For all its impressive formal rigor, this modern-day noir fails to connect on an emotional level." Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times wrote that it "feels designed to within an inch of its life". Bilge Ebiri of Vulture.com wrote, "Story-wise, nothing in Glass Chin will surprise you. But stylistically, the film's got something cool going on."
Marin Ireland was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.