Arms and the woman
Golden Arm Cast: Mary Holland, Betsy Sodaro
Directors: Maureen Bharoocha Duration: 1 h 31 m Available: On demand
Nothing against Cleveland, the sport of women’s arm wrestling or indie movies in general, but I am tickled pink by the idea that Golden Arm was a runner-up — a runner-up! — in the American Independents category at the latest Cleveland International Film Festival. It just feels like the perfect size of accolade for a wonderful little film that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The small stakes are mirrored in the movie’s plot, in which down-on-her-luck trucker and former arm wrestling champ Danny (Betsy Sodaro) busts her arm before the big match, and so finagles her old friend Melanie (Mary Holland) into taking her place. The purse is all of $15,000, plus the chance to rub it in the face of competitor Brenda (Olivia Stambouliah), a real bad apple.
Co-writers Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly take us behind the scenes of the ladies’ arm wrestling circuit, with male characters strategically placed as either assistants, sidekicks or love interests. (Pretty sure this one fails the Reverse Bechdel Test. Also, pretty OK with that.) Do they paint an accurate picture of the sport? I honestly don’t know. Did Christopher Guest get into the heads of dog-show participants? It feels like he did.
Sodaro and Holland are both alumni of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and they have a loose improvisational style that feels very Saturday Night Live — imagine an alternate version of Melissa Mccarthy at her most foul-mouthed and Kristen Wiig at her most uptight.
The road from Melanie’s bakery to the arm wrestling championships in Oklahoma City is pretty straightforward, taking in a few rough roadhouses along the way, as well as a strip club where Melanie is mentored by former champ Big Sexy (Dot-marie Jones).
In a single montage, she goes from fighting like a girl to fighting like a woman.
Golden Arm — the title is a term for a natural-born wrestler who emerges from the shadows to claim her crown — hits a sweet spot between predictability and originality. Case in point: A scene of the two friends rocking out in the cab of Danny’s truck to Heart’s These Dreams feels like it could come from any female buddy movie of the past 20 years, but we gradually learn that despite it being “their song,” Danny is faking along with the lyrics.
And sure, the final act — OK, the final two acts — are straight out of the underdog playbook, with a little bestfriends-fight-and-make-up thrown in for good measure. But the chemistry between the leads is the main attraction here, and director Maureen Bharoocha knows that the best tactic is to get out of the way and let them do their thing. ∏∏∏∏