Glass Chin-2015

Director Noah Buschel

Starring Corey Stoll

Scott’s Review #470

Reviewed August 28, 2016

Grade: B-

Glass Chin, an independent drama film from 2015, has both strengths and weaknesses.

The film has two intriguing central characters, a working-class appeal, and some fun, Quentin Tarantino-style moments.

The villains are unappealing and downright annoying, which detracts from the main story.

Still, a solid effort.

The premise is straightforward and comfortable. Corey Stoll plays Bud Gordon, a former New York boxer with a level of one-time success.

He now lives in a small apartment in New Jersey with his girlfriend Ellen (Marin Ireland). Yearning to get back into the game, he aligns with crooked businessman JJ Cook, played by Billy Crudup.

Along for the ride is JJ’s odd henchman, Robert.

Framed for murder, he is now “owned” by JJ, and Bud must struggle to escape the mess he has gotten himself into.

The best parts of Glass Chin are Stoll and Ireland, who make Bud and Gordon likable and genuine. They are a great team, once successful and now struggling to pay the rent.

They encompass blue-collar appeal.

They are nice people, happy to dine at cheap diners and clip coupons, but want a comfortable life.

When Ellen tries caviar for the first time at a fancy hotel, she dislikes it. She is a happy working-class girl, comfortable in her skin. Bud misses the boxing lifestyle, not for the glamour, but for a purpose.

After running a failed restaurant, he’s forced to take a job with a shady character to make ends meet.

I would have preferred to focus only on Bud and Ellen and their life struggles, perhaps with more emphasis on their aspirations, his feelings of failure, and more story involving his training as a young boxer, Kid Sunshine.

But sadly, these aspects take a back seat to the emergence of the villains JJ and Robert.

I am not sure why the filmmakers made both JJ and Robert so weird, and I assume they were going for a Quentin Tarantino influence, but it didn’t work and made the film feel less cohesive.

Both characters, especially Robert, meander through monologues of nonsense dialogue and downright crazy, over-the-top talk.

It adds nothing to the story.

They are high-class thugs- the point comes across. The female characters, besides Ellen, are Tarantino-influenced in their left-of-center actions (the wedding dress outfit, the statuesque model who beds Bud), but we know almost nothing about them.

As a side note, I love the film’s constant outdoor New York City and New Jersey locales, which add authenticity.

When Bud drives around in his beat-up 1980s Country Squire station wagon in the snowy New York weather, it adds atmosphere.

More Bud and Ellen would have helped, and less JJ and Robert would have made Glass Chin a better film.

Still, there is some appeal, but overall Glass Chin (2015) is quite uneven.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Supporting Female-Marin Ireland