Two years ago, Disney established a division called Onyx and defined its agenda: to bring to the general public films that give a platform to populations that until now have not been adequately represented in popular culture. The big hit of this division was “Summer of Soul”, which deals with the festival that was nicknamed “the black version of Woodstock”. In this case it was a docu-film, and it won an Oscar in the documentary category. Now comes the first feature film acquired by the new division – “Bruiser”, which will be streaming directly at the end of the week. In America it is available on HULU, which also belongs to Disney as I recall, and here on Disney Plus.
This is the debut film of Miles Warren, a young African-American director who already at the age of 25 managed to gain great exposure. Here he follows a black boy, whose square and fixed father offers no interesting solutions to his adolescent crises. The alternative comes in the form of a mysterious vagabond who happens to be on his way, played by Trevante Rhodes, who is remembered, among other things, from “Moonlight”. He becomes a sort of spiritual father to him, until it turns out that the relationship between them is more complicated than we initially thought, and the boy finds himself torn between different models of fatherhood and masculinity. It will end in a beating.
“The initial inspiration for the film came from the world of WorldStarHipHop’s video games,” says the director in a special interview. as aggressive or as violent. It’s a convention that was fascinating to play with, and to see how it affects a black boy in the most formative phase of his life.”
You are very young, and not yet a father yourself. What was it like to write and direct a film about fatherhood from your perspective?
“Truthfully, the movie made me afraid of fatherhood. He made me realize how intense an experience it is. Every little thing you do leaves a mark on your child, every little thing can turn into a big deal. My perspective while writing was that of the child. I was an angry child. I didn’t think of the men in the film as ‘parents’ but as people who have a goal – to take someone under their wing and be a father figure to them. I thought about masculinity more than fatherhood. In any case, it’s important for me to note that I’m on excellent terms with my father and my parents in general.”
Warren is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, which produced, among others, Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton” and “Encanto”; Mike White, who was behind “The White Lotus”; Matthew Winer, who signed on to “Mad Men”; and Sara Dossa, whose “The Fire of Love” is a favorite to win this year’s Oscar in the long-form documentary category. He graduated from law school a total of four years ago, and returned to his quarry to present the film in a special screening. Our conversation It takes place the day after, near the cafeteria. Behind us, the students are standing in line for breakfast. The thriving director is almost as young as them, and looks their age. “I’m used to people not believing that I’m the director. It helped me mix with the crew during filming, what’s more, I always wore sweatpants,” he says and laughs. “Take for example Jaylen Hall, the star of the movie who plays the boy. The first time we met, he said to me, ‘You don’t look like a director to me.’ I asked him what he expected, and he answered, ‘I don’t know, for a 65-year-old white man.’ It took a while to buy his trust, but in the end we connected.”
Recently, we also saw Hall in “The Story of Emmit Till”, which deals with the lynching of a black boy and is therefore naturally also a hard and violent film. How did you “protect” him during the filming?
“He is a smart boy. He didn’t need protection, he needed guidance. He needed answers to his questions. If we did something intense, I explained to him why it was intense. I asked him not to think too much. Be direct and rough and let it lead him. He plays a boy who is in a storm of emotions, so it makes sense that his behavior would be messy.”
What is the biggest advantage of being a young director?
“The energies. To make a movie is to give up a normal and comfortable lifestyle. It’s doing a marathon of mental and artistic gymnastics, so you need a lot of energy for that. Another advantage is gratitude. Throughout the filming, I kept telling myself that this might be the last time I do something like this, so I appreciated every moment.”
The movie “Bully” (photo: courtesy of Disney Plus)
In a conversation with the audience after the screening, you said that you don’t have a driver’s license. The movie deals quite a bit with cars, driving and their relationship to masculinity, so I was wondering what your perspective on that is as a person who doesn’t drive.
“I’m from New York, so I don’t have a license and I don’t have a car. As a teenager I got to take informal driving lessons from my parents and drive a bit in the non-urban areas of New York State. When your parents teach you to drive, it’s a significant moment – for better or for worse. It can be stressful, but it can also bring you together. It is a significant connection, so it was important for me to include it in the film. I was also fascinated by this whole idea of taking a child and letting him drive a car. I was too lazy to get a license, and I wish America had more sidewalks and fewer roads so a license wasn’t such an important thing.”
How does such a young director make a film that reaches one of the biggest streaming services in the world?
“I wrote the script with Ben Medina, also a graduate of Wesleyan. At first we wanted to write something small that we could get some money for and shoot it in the woods or something. That’s why the volume here is chambery and there aren’t many characters. Over time, we added more genre and commercial elements, and then came Disney’s support. In addition, I made a short film that was the basis for this film, and also functioned as a ‘business card’ that helped me get credit.”
The film was originally called “Bruiser”. I’m not sure there is a word for it in Hebrew, and they translated it here as “Bryon”, which is more like “Bully”.
“really? interesting. very interesting. ‘Bruiser’ has different connotations for me than ‘Bully’, which is a negative derogatory word. ‘Bruiser’ is a big guy who can mow you down, but when you call him that, there’s a certain affection for him, if a slightly odd one. I deliberately chose a word with a less negative connotation.”
Are you excited for the movie to be streaming worldwide?
“From the moment I saw mentions of the film in different languages on social networks, I started to get excited, but also to get anxious. This is not something I expected. Of course, cinema distribution also has its advantages, but it’s great that streaming allows the film to reach the whole world at once, and that you don’t have to worry about performance at the box office.”
Avner Shavit is the film critic of Walla!