‘Queen Of The Ring’ Review: A Tale Of Grappling With Lipstick And Dynamite
To be the woman, in this case, you’ve got to beat the woman. Actually, in this case, you have to become the woman when no one else has ever done it because it was next to impossible. Mildred Burke did that in the mid-20th century by pioneering women’s wrestling, which was illegal back then.
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Fast-forwarding to today, there are still fans who complain there aren’t enough distaff bouts to go around on TV. Well, brush up on your history and realize you don’t know how good you have it. You can start with the new biopic about Burke, Queen of the Ring, starring Arrow’s Emily Bett Rickards and directed by Ash (son of Rocky and Karate Kid’s director) Avildsen.
Fitting as much of Burke’s story as it can into almost three hours, the film starts with her humble beginnings as a waitress serving hash (the breakfast kind) at a diner until the crusty yet magnetic heel wrestler and promoter Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas) walks in for a bite.
She begs Wolfe to train her and teach her the business. At first, he doesn’t take Burke seriously, but soon, he takes her under his wing anyway and puts her through the wringer both inside and outside the ropes. What follows is a tempestuous career and romance that tests Mildred’s limits while changing her life for the better, and the worse, equally.
If you’ve seen The Wrestler, The Iron Claw, or Foxcatcher, then you’ve seen some true stories related to wrestling in some form that take a dark turn. Queen of the Ring doesn’t dive as deeply into those depressing depths although it doesn’t suffer a lack of trying. It shines a light on domestic abuse and the predatory nature of promoters, so be prepared for sensitive subject matter.
Through it all, however, Rickards shines in a star-making role. She shows toughness like Barbara Stanwyck and the elegance of Grace Kelly or Marlene Dietrich (to use examples of the post-World War America in which this film is set). In a perfect world, Rickards would be a movie star and certainly could’ve been 50, 60, or even 20 years ago.
Similarly, Kailey “Kamille” Latimer stands out as Mildred’s chief rival June Byers, who like Latimer herself, was a women’s world champion. Latimer is an accomplished wrestler and a standard bearer of the modern female scene as one of the longest-reigning NWA Women’s World Champions of the last five years. And that title is naturally nicknamed “The Burke” after Mildred.
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Latimer was made for the role of Byers and she is a natural. It’s not hard to picture her permanently jumping into filmmaking either as an actor or a stunt performer, which would be preferable to her booking in AEW where she is persona non grata.
Other female stars of today, including WWE’s Naomi and AEW’s Britt Baker are in it too, but they can only be spotted briefly in the background and have no lines. One has to wonder if they were promised bigger parts only to be cut down, but sacrifices must be made when the film is as long as this one.
I wish Avildsen, who co-wrote the screenplay, had trimmed more dialogue because the script gets too didactic with rules and insider terminology. He spends so much time talking down to the audience and explaining the industry that he fails to let it speak for itself through the plentiful shady politics and heated matches.
No viewer, fan or not, needed a program or manual to go with watching Mickey Rourke as Randy the Ram or Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich. Both experiences intelligibly spoke for themselves, pulling no punches and not holding your hand.
But overall, Queen of the Ring should please the smart marks in the audience. Casual moviegoers who don’t follow wrestling might get invested in the performances, but the film’s length could also be an Iron Man’s test of their patience. However, it isn’t the dour heart punch Iron Claw was either.
I’m not saying the casuals should avoid this one, just that they should know what they are getting themselves into and they might be better off renting it or streaming it wherever it ends up. Other than that consideration, this main event is worth a seat in the front row if you have the time.
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Queen of the Ring
PROS
- Rickards in the lead
- Wrestler-turned-actress Kamille, whose talent in a ring and in front of a camera has been slept on for too long
- Girl-bossing done right! These women take hits and overcome real obstacles
CONS
- The runtime will be a slog for the average viewer
- The mise-en-scene and the overuse of fades to black make the production feel like a quaint B-picture
- It feels the need to explain wrestling's minute details as if we can't figure it out or haven't heard of the sport
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