Leo Leone has been wrestling since he was seven years old. As the only son of wrestling coach (and ex-state champion) Edward Leone, Leo's dedication to the sport was tied up in his love for his father. Now Leo is seventeen. His life has been an endless cycle of training, sacrifice, and starving to make weight -- a process that is becoming ever more difficult during adolescence. He's tired of denying himself everything, and is feeling the lure of a world beyond the mat. Living paycheck to paycheck, working a dead-end job in the mines while coaching for no money, Leo's father Ed sees a wrestling scholarship as his son's only chance to escape the treadmill of life in a small Pennsylvania town. But though his motives are good, Ed is pushing his son too hard
Acting
Danny Mousetis carries teenage exhaustion like a second skin.
Practical Effects
Real wrestling rooms, real weight-cutting misery, zero glamour.
Director
Alan Vint
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Alan Vint was primarily an actor (The Panic in Needle Park) and this was his only feature; he died in 2006.
Shot in actual Pennsylvania coal towns with a micro-budget, the film mirrors Leo's trapped existence — everyone involved was working for passion, not profit.
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