Charlie Hunnam excels in ‘Jungleland’
“Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” This phrase, oft attributed to author and newspaperman Horace Greeley, is a central exhortation of 19th century Manifest Destiny philosophy, but the idea resonates, even after the West was won. California looms large in the imagination of Massachusetts scrapper Stanley Kaminski (Charlie Hunnam), the slick-talking antihero of Max Winkler’s boxing road movie “Jungleland.”
Stan himself doesn’t get in the ring: That’s his younger brother, Walter “Lion” Kaminski (Jack O’Connell), but it feels like Stan has his dukes up to the world, to the doubters and the debt collectors. He trains his brother; he’s his coach and corner man, not to mention manager and father figure, but he’s just as quick to sell his brother out, offering Lion’s fists as payment.
When Stan stretches a line of credit with suavely suited gangster Pepper ( Jonathan Majors) too thin, he lands the brothers in a strange pickle. The young men have to go west, to San Francisco, for a bare- knuckle boxing match called “Jungleland.” Win the fight, erase the debt. The only catch? Pepper saddles Stan with another delivery, a young woman by the name of Sky (Jessica Barden), who is to be dropped at a pet supply store in Reno in the care of a man named Yeats, to which Sky is vehemently opposed.
This dire and dreamy road movie is impressive work from director and co- writer Max Winkler. His third feature shows Winkler to be expanding the scope and genre of his work, while remaining tightly focused on character.
That focus makes this an actor’s picture, with a trio of English actors tackling working-class American dreamers, to remarkable results. Hunnam excels in roles that utilize his gift of gab and natural charm. O’Connell disappears into the role of the stoic, strong and loyal Lion. Barden holds her own against the two as the enigmatic Sky.
Shot with heightened naturalism by cinematographer Damian Garcia, certain images are incredibly striking, seemingly plucked out of the existing landscape, especially from authentic locations in Fall River, Mass., Reno and San Francisco. Winkler and editor Tomas Vengris build a rhythm that ebbs and flows, sound overlapping image to push the pace along, and occasionally allowing it to grind to a halt, observing how tensions rise on this increasingly disastrous journey.