A Review of If It Bleeds

If It Bleeds by Isabelle Pauwels is a film that mocks Mixed Martial Arts. This is not a sport I know much about so it was a little hard to understand the references, but the film was still comedic and I can see how it relates to other sports entertainment that I’ve seen as well.

There are many fictional characters who represent fighters, reporters, promoters, and Athletic Commission members. Some of the fictional characters are represented by objects instead of actors. All of the fights feel very theatrical or representational and are barely recognizable as fights. The beginning of the film shows bricks on the floor and balloons popping and falling onto them with commentary about the U.S. and “f*cking your wife”. The first fighter you are introduced to has been retired but is being brought back for a fight and answers every question with “5th amendment”. Many of the characters say things that are supposed to be inspirational but don’t quite work, like the female fighter who says her arms are real and girls shouldn’t need to photoshop their arms, and one of the female fighters represented by objects (I think she may have been a pink wig and a water bottle) says that she is not perfect but she wins because she chooses to. Another fighter takes drugs and characters are upset when he can’t fight because he had ‘a little cocaine’. The reporters who interview the fighters ask very cliche questions (one of them clearly states that he is asking a question as though it has never been asked before) and the fighters respond mostly as you would expect them to, although everything in this film manages to be a little odd and unexpected. Different images and pieces of video flash briefly over parts of the screen, often showing tinsel and sparkles. One of the fighters is embodied by his cowboy hat and says crude things and is surrounded by beer cans. A fight between a guy with a fake Irish accent and the fighter returning from retirement ends with the old fighter putting lipstick on his opponent’s lips. At one point the woman who is asking legal questions takes off her wig and becomes a some sort of commentator dressed in leather who flips her hair dramatically and seems to direct the fight (she asks someone to throw a shoe and asks people to repeat lines, and suggests that a fighter cries on screen). Whenever someone does something admirable or inspirational, there are black gloves clapping which I suppose must represent the audience. The whole time, you feel like the characters are conscious of being filmed and everything is an act.

This film makes WWA seem very focused on the media and appealing to their audiences in any way possible. The culture that is promoted feels similar to that of American football, where stereotypically masculine traits are encouraged, although this sport also tries to include anything that seems “badass” like talking about winning, sex, and tattoos. I know it’s not as fake as the professional wrestling industry, but the movie isn’t really focusing on the fighting itself. It’s focusing on what goes on around the fighting. The fighters seem pitted against each other and made to fit into stereotypes. I think you could still be a fan of WWA as a sport and enjoy watching it but agree that some parts are ridiculous. I also liked the creative use of cheap materials like tinsel, colorful beer cans, balloons, and many everyday objects which makes it feel like the sport is being dressed up as something flashier than it is. Afterwards I looked up MMA and watched some videos of it and now I feel like I’ve been exposed to a cultural phenomenon I knew little about.