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Jungleland review – flimsy boxing drama pulls its punches

<span>Photograph: Claire Folger/AP</span>
Photograph: Claire Folger/AP

Stanley (Charlie Hunnam) and Lion (Jack O’Connell) are brothers, barely getting by on the wrong side of town. Lion has some talent as a boxer and Stan is his big-talking, relentlessly optimistic manager – so the plan is to drag themselves out of poverty in the time-honoured fashion, using only their fists and aggression. Plans go awry when Stan, in debt to a local loan shark (Jonathan Majors), is charged with delivering some mysterious human cargo (Jessica Barden) to the other side of the country, en route to a big-money tournament in San Francisco.

Underground-fight movies tap directly into a macho fantasy of self-reliance, but the recent economic downturn has given these narratives a desperate new relevance. However, this depiction of hardscrabble American life seems derived not so much from direct experience or empathetic observation, as from a handful of half-listened-to Bruce Springsteen albums. From the kitschy motel decor to the actors’ straggly beards, it all just feels like a bit of a put-on. Amid all this apparent deprivation, the dandified Majors looks as if he came direct from a GQ fashion shoot.

But then overelaborate costume seems a reasonable strategy to stave off boredom when the material is so slight. This crime-boss-by-numbers is beneath Majors’ talents. There’s much more going on in a three-way dynamic between controlling older brother Stan, long-suffering Lion and Lion’s flirtatious new friend, Skye. Is their connection genuine? Or just her desperate ploy to survive?

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The performances are fine, but the questionable decision to cast not one, not two, but three Brits can’t help but intensify the off-putting sense of Americana cosplay.

• Jungleland is available on digital platforms from 30 November.