Warrior

Warrior is the greatest MMA film ever made, and it has no business being as emotionally devastating as it is. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play estranged brothers who both enter a mixed martial arts tournament for different desperate reasons — one to save his family’s home, the other to honor a fallen comrade’s family. Nick Nolte, in a career-best performance as their alcoholic father, provides the emotional fulcrum. The fight choreography is authentic and brutal (both actors trained for months in real MMA disciplines), but it’s the final fight between the brothers — set to ‘About Today’ by The National — that breaks you. Warrior is Rocky for the MMA generation, and it deserved a much larger audience.