A Knock Out

Forget Million Dollar Baby: this real-life drama about a champion female boxer is twice as engrossing as Clint Eastwood's film, although it features essentially the same story arc about a young woman with nothing, who rises to the top of the fight game only to lose everything but the memory of her triumph. Directors Tessa Boerman and Samuël Reiziger's A Knock Out charts the meteoric rise of Michele Aboro, a mixed-race lesbian from South London whose tenacity and dedication (fueled, it seems, by an inner rage) made her a sensation in the ring: Aboro would win all 21 of her pro bouts—18 by knockout—while also landing a contract with Europe's biggest boxing promoter. But success slipped away when she refused to promote herself as a sex symbol, preferring to be known for her record inside the ring rather than any trumped-up antics outside it. Interweaving interviews with various people in the sport together with Aboro's personal story, this powerful commentary on the commercialization of women's sports and society's insatiable appetite for the sensational will leave many viewers reeling—the same effect Michele Aboro had on her opponents. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (E. Hulse)