Joe Carman, a 40-year-old husband and father who works as a boilermaker for the Washington State Ferries system, has a loving, affectionate relationship with his family. But as viewers quickly learn in this remarkably revealing documentary, Joe also has a dark secret: he is addicted to mixed martial arts cage fighting. When he tells his wife (who has health issues) that he’s going out for a run at night, Joe is actually heading for some fight club, where he can pummel somebody and get pummeled back. It doesn’t take long for his spouse and children to see what’s going on behind their backs. In fact, they’ve all been down this road before, with Joe repeatedly promising to stop fighting. But he can’t. The thing that drives him toward the cage at the expense of everything else slowly becomes clearer, especially during the final minutes, which are rich with folly and irony. But before that, filmmaker Jeff Unay—who had extraordinary access over a three-year-plus period—captures naked moments of heartbreak, despair, confusion, and anger. An epic tale of one man who could lose it all while chasing a mirage, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
The Cage Fighter
(2018) 81 min. DVD: $24.98. MPI Media Group (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 5
The Cage Fighter
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