TORRANCE TRIBUNE November 24, 2016 Page 3 Entertainment Up and Adam Film Review STARS & STRIPES A M E R I C A N M A D E C L O T H I N G S T O R E COME CHECK US OUT! GREAT CLOTHING INCLUDING DENIM, HATS, BAGS, SHOES AND MORE 1107 Van Ness Ave.Torrance, CA 90501 • 310.320-3207 LEE 101 USA, WOOLRICH, SAVE KHAKI, MINNETONKA MOCCASIN, PENNY, JAN SPORT, DULUTH, REYN SPOONER, TRETORN, BALL, BURTON, STANCE, RAINBOW SANDALS, FILSON, TEVA, NEW YORK HAT, PADDY WAX, RICHER & POORER, SCHOTT USA, STRATHTAY Open Mondays through Saturdays Noon to 6pm Torrance, South High Girls Dominate Volleyball Season In Bleed For This, Teller and Eckhart Go the Full 12 Rounds By Ryan Rojas for Cinemacy.com There’s a fire that burns in Bleed For This, the latest boxing-story-to-screen movie about boxer Vinny Pazienza, the former world champ who suffered what should’ve been not only a career-ending but life-ending car accident--and his against-all-odds decision to train to get back in the ring. Vinny’s insane perseverance and dedication to the sport he loved so much also inspired the creative talents in this movie to give their very best, as Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, and director Ben Younger show they are all heart in this inspirational drama that proves it’s more than just another formulaic sports movie. Rhode Island-proud Pazienza (Teller), is seen as the showboat type, as fast on his feet as he is with his mouth. After a few early match successes which Teller embodies with true fighter stamina, he decides to go for his weight class belt, enlisting the help of trainer Kevin Rooney (Eckhart) and shortly thereafter becoming world champ. As he continues to train for the next competition, Pazienza is struck by his biggest blow yet – a head-on car collision that puts him in critical condition. When he stabilizes, he is given the options of having his spine fused--also the safest measure to ensure walking--or having Halo surgery to literally screw a cage around his head attached to the shoulders, which would allow his spine to fix naturally. Despite the doctor’s concerns and simply human reason, Vinny is convinced that the second option gives him a better chance of returning to boxing. So he decides to move forward with the risk of Halo surgery. This underdog training tale could have been enough to focus on, but Younger extends the scope of Bleed For This even further to show more of Vinny’s world. The film lives congruent to the world that David O. Russell built with The Fighter, similarly giving multiple people close to the boxing champ their onscreen moments to craft more of a familial drama rather than a personal one. Younger opens up the story to include the relationships between Vinny’s father Angelo (Ciarán Hinds) and mother Louise (Katey Sagal), but the strongest connection comes from Rooney (Eckhart). Eckhart transforms into a character we’ve never seen, adding weight and a snarling accent to make him nearly unrecognizable. Whereas the connection between boxer and trainer should be perhaps the most intimate in a film like this, other relationships (as with the parents) seem to crowd this space. Although the actors provide fantastic performances, this lessens the effect of Vinny’s personal struggle. Bleed For This has a ferocious dedication to these relationships and the actual true-life events. Younger’s desire to make this more than just a boxing movie and to extract these character relationships gives the film a bit more to play with and creates more connection for the audience. Although like the success of the seminal boxing movie Rocky one has to wonder what this movie could have been if this was developed as a “Miles Teller vehicle,” perhaps focusing a little more on the grittiness of Vinny’s rehabilitation and his head-on fight with mortality (coincidentally, Teller has both a personal history of car accident injuries, which also showed up in a previous film Whiplash). However, Bleed For This makes its case for being more than just another boxing movie with its whole team’s dedication and heart. 116 min. Bleed For This is rated R for language, sexuality/nudity, and some accident images. Now playing in select cities. • By Adam Serrao The Torrance Tartars and the South High Spartans girls’ volleyball teams were at each other’s throats all season long. If it wasn’t in one of the two rivalry matchups that the teams shared on the season, it was for the first place in the Pioneer League standings. While the Lady Spartans were just too much for Torrance in head-to-head play this year, both teams would wind up enjoying successful seasons making it to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs. The Lady Spartans and their head coach Robert Kusch have certainly gotten used to winning. The team is coming off of a season in which they finished in first place in the Pioneer League like they have become accustomed to doing, but also made it to the CIF semifinal game where they lost in straight sets to Chadwick. This year was no different for the Spartans and Kusch, as they came out of the gates with their sights set on another Pioneer League championship. South was tested early on in the season with back-to-back matchups against its rivals from West High. What seemed like a great rivalry and inner-city matchup ended up with a twogame sweep by the Lady Spartans. The team disposed of West by only giving away one set over a two-game stretch. Despite its success over the course of the season, South would experience lulls throughout the course of the year as well. A three-game losing streak came at the beginning of September when Kusch and his team lost to Saint Joseph, Lakewood and Marlborough consecutively. Losses to Xavier College Prep and Long Beach Poly would also quickly follow as the Spartans began to try to find ways to find themselves and get back to their winning ways. The beginning of league play was just what South needed. A first-week matchup with Leuzinger got the team back to its winning ways with a 3-0 victory. Wins against Torrance, West and North would soon follow and before Kutsch and his team knew it, they were on their way to a 10-0, undefeated league play season with all of the momentum in the world on their side. South High’s seven-game winning streak in league not only brought about another Pioneer League championship for Kutsch and the Spartans, but also earned them a playoff spot with a first round bye in the Southern Section Division 2 playoffs. When the Lady Spartans would get started again, they would find themselves in a first round matchup with the Chino Hills Huskies. South took the first set from the Huskies with great play at the net, dominating with a 25-18 score. Despite the strong showing to start the game, however, Chino Hills would rally to win the next three sets straight. A 25-21, 25-22 and 25-16 straight-set victory would serve to defeat the Spartans and end their successful season. “We did some really good things this season,” Kutsch explained. “We reached the semifinals in two big tournaments and we won league for the ninth year in a row. You can’t call this season a failure. It was definitely a success.” Gina Cortesi, who has shined all year long, finished the game with 17 kills and two aces for the Spartans, who will undoubtedly be back next season for yet another Pioneer League championship run. While South was making its run, the Torrance Tartars were on their heels all season long. The Tartars were relatively unsuccessful during the first part of the season before league play. A two-game losing streak to start the season ran into a five-game losing streak at the end of September heading into league play. Once divisional play kicked off, the Tartars began to shine. Behind head coach Richell Squire, Torrance would defeat every league opponent it went up against, except for South. A 3-0 win over Leuzinger, a 3-1 victory at North, and a 3-1 win over West were just some of the victories that led to a 6-2 league season for Squire and the Lady Tartars. Unfortunately, South remained Torrance’s Achilles heel. Two straight set defeats accounted for the Tartars’ only losses of league play and gave the team a second place finish in the Pioneer League entering this year’s playoffs. A first round matchup against Apple Valley certainly wasn’t easy for the Lady Tartars to undertake. Despite winning the first two sets of the match by scores of 25-15 and 25-18, Apple Valley would rally for two sets of their own. In the third and deciding set, Torrance showed guts and determination. The team eventually came out with a 15-10 match win to advance to the second round where it would face off against Arcadia. Arcadia would prove to be even more of a challenge for the Tartars than Apple Valley. The Torrance girls lost in straight sets with a defeat that would in turn end their season and have Squire now looking forward to next year. Despite finishing in second place, the Lady Tartars are heading in the right direction. Last season under Squire, Torrance mustered a fourth place finish and ended the year out of playoff contention. If the Tartars can stay headed in the right direction, they will certainly be looking forward to more playoff appearances and maybe even a league title in the very near future. – asixlion@earthlink.net • Miles Teller as Vinny Pazienza and Aaron Eckhart as Kevin Rooney in Bleed For This. Courtesy of Open Road Films.
Torrance_112416_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above