"Part of the fun is that Mildred and trainer/manager/on-off beau Billy the Big Bad Wolfe (Josh Lucas) are having to invent a sport on the hoof, girl-on-girl combat having been proscribed in certain states, with stuffed shirts convinced this just isn't a woman's place. The script by Avildsen and Alston Ramsay, parsing Jeff Leen's biography has one pointed, self-sustaining running joke: wherever Mildred fights, the audience is full of contemporaries looking to unleash frustrated energies."
"Avildsen makes the 1950s look quietly and unfussily handsome, casting people who look the part. Small-screen face Rickards (Arrow, The Flash) and double Kelly Phelan more than hold their own amid the grappling action, while Lucas a movie star like they used to make offers a terrific heel turn as a glorified carnival barker rattled by Mildred's success. Avildsen is prone to luxuriating in his own Americana the midsection is somewhat baggy and you sometimes sense the writing tiptoeing around t"
A genial indie film dramatizes Mildred 'Millie' Burke's rise from single mother and diner waitress to America's first millionaire sportswoman as the Kansas Cyclone. The film portrays the invention of an all-girl wrestling spectacle amid social prohibitions and hostile onlookers. Ash Avildsen directs with a modest budget and an eye for unfussy 1950s detail. The screenplay by Avildsen and Alston Ramsay draws on Jeff Leen's biography and sustains a running joke about audiences unleashing frustrated energies. Emily Bett Rickards and Kelly Phelan handle the grappling action well, while Josh Lucas delivers a memorable heel turn. The direction luxuriates in Americana, though the middle section feels a touch baggy and the writing occasionally avoids harder edges.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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