You may remember hearing about this movie focused on brothers in a mixed martial arts tournament earlier in 2011. You may have seen some TV spots, maybe some internet ads, and a whole lot of positive tweets – but if you’re like me, you didn’t see the movie in theaters. Why? Well, it didn’t look all that interesting. I don’t remember seeing a full trailer for it at any point, just short tv spots and blurbs online, and the previews I did see weren’t compelling. But I kept seeing positive buzz online, and then this past weekend I found the movie available to rent through Redbox.

The story focuses on two brothers, Brendan and Tommy, and their father, Paddy. It’s clear from the beginning that they’ve had a rough life up to this point. Tommy returns to his dad’s house, mostly silent but a tough-as-nails hulk of a guy. Paddy taught them how to wrestle as children, and Tommy asks him to train him once again for a mixed martial arts tournament that’s coming up. He makes it clear he doesn’t want to talk or bond with his father, just train. All business. His motivation for all of this is revealed gradually throughout the film.

Brendan is a teacher with a wife and children who is about to lose his house to foreclosure. He put his wrestling to use earlier in life as a UFC fighter, and now he goes to small night fights to pick up extra cash on the side. This complicates things and leads to him also train (with an old friend) to enter the same tournament.

Throughout the course of the film the guys train and we explore their family’s history and how it brought them to where they are – it’s all in bits and pieces, and contrary to what you may think, it’s very compelling. The storytelling is fantastic here, and the three leads are all perfect in their respective roles.

Nick Nolte is subtle yet powerful as a recovering alcoholic desperate to make up for lost time with his children. Joel Edgerton’s character is focused and determined, anything but a quitter. And then there’s Tom Hardy’s Tommy. He’s quiet, mean, hostile and aggressive – all of which is explained by the things we learn about him and his past along the way. In a few particularly powerful scenes, he unloads on his father before showing a completely different side, one which is only hinted at and vaguely referenced up until that point. He’s the toughest character in the story, but it’s because of his childhood. He expects complete and utter vulnerability before he will show it in return – and it’s then and only then that he does so.

I don’t want to spoil anything because the story is really captivating and worth experiencing, but as you’d expect the film climaxes with the brothers being the last two opponents in the tournament. The final fight is a powerful moment, and it grabs you and holds you up until the very end even if you don’t realize it – you may even find yourself in tears by the time the credits roll.

I loved Hugo because it was a celebration of the power of movies. But now that I’ve seen Warrior, it is definitely the best picture of 2011 in my opinion – because it is that power. An underrated, inspiring, and deeply moving film that I encourage you to check out.

As a child I had an experience where a dog looking through the living room window scared me, and ever since I’ve been easily scared of dark windows and doorways – the perfect spots in scary movies for things to jump out at you. The Last Exorcism, a movie done in a “found footage” style, spends a lot of time with scenes filled with that type of scenario. Whether anything jumps out at you, I’ll let you find out yourself when you see this movie.

And see it you should, if this type of scary flick seems up your ally. Now it’s not crazy gory or scary due to the use of cheap and cliche tricks, it’s suspense that gets you. There’s tension palpable in the frame, and it tightens and tightens as the story progresses, building until the final amazing ending that you see coming in some ways but definitely don’t in quite a few others.

The film starts off by introducing us to Reverend Cotton Marcus, played in a captivating performance by Patrick Fabian. He’s been raised as a reverend and an exorcist, but wants the filmmakers to help him expose exorcism for the fraud it really is. While he’s a faithful man, he’s also a cynical man – cynical of the gullibility and sometimes backwards nature of men, especially when it can lead to death, as we find is the case with exorcism.

So they open a random letter asking for help, and travel to a backwoods farm to perform an “exorcism” on a young girl named Nell, played by Ashley Bell in another captivating performance. In fact, while we’re on the subject, there’s not a bad performance in this flick. They’re all superb, down to the last random person telling Cotton about local legends at the gas station – you keep thinking, are these all professional actors? They should be getting more work if so. And if they’re not, did they find locals that were that natural on camera? Or are the stories they’re telling true, a nod to the truth found in the concept and the Cotton character’s attitudes toward the people there? Whatever the case may be, every actor is amazing. Name recognition should also be paid to Louis Herthum, who plays Nell’s desperate father.

The first exorcism scene is amazing, a lesson in how easy it could be to fool those who are in the mindset of wanting to be fooled. Everything is resolved then, the girl is freed, and Cotton and the film crew go to a nearby motel to rest before heading back home.

And then in the middle of the night, Nell is there. Without a car. And without her family. With miles of distance to her house. And as far as we and the other characters can tell, no way of knowing which motel they were staying at.

From that point, things begin to unravel and then wind back up again, back and forth, as new clues into the dark side of the family crop up and assumptions run wild. There’s not a slow moment that isn’t pure tension, and there are so many creepy and scary bits interspersed throughout the flick you start to wonder if maybe the girl really is possessed, and there won’t be some twist at the end that reveals it was all a hoax with innocent origins.

And the movie plays out as you would imagine, and you are scared and thrilled as you would hope. Then this nagging thought in your head tells you there’s something more to this film, and you shouldn’t think you know it all just yet. So you see a twist coming, and sure enough, it comes, and then the characters head toward the ending, and you ride along with them, wondering what the hell is going on. The movie played toward your expectations to this point, you were scared and entertained solidly throughout, now what are they going to do? Ruin it with some lame last shot where someone says “No….IT ISN’T” and then BAM you see one shot that surprises you and it’s over?

Well, not exactly.

Like I said, you’ll see some of the ending coming, but at the same time, some of it you won’t. And it’s the parts you won’t that stick with you after the credits start rolling. You will be satisfied, even if you don’t think there’s enough closure. Clues earlier in the film could inform some of your questions about certain fates, but if you are like me you absolutely loved the movie once Cotton does one specific act, and no matter the clues or the questions you will be satisfied with the film from a character standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, and that can be a truly powerful and unexpected thing at the end of a horror movie. When done right, the most powerful and unexpected thing. The entire reason we love horror movies.

For being done independently on little to no budget, the thing looks fantastic, and the attention to detail is phenomenal. At one point, Nell abducts the camera during the night for a little trip, and the filmmakers know that she wouldn’t pick up the audio recorder and boom mic as well – so we hear sound as if it’s from the camera mic, wind blowing it out as she takes it outside and all. As a filmmaker, I loved the little touches like that.

While this movie may not end up being the type of horror film everyone loves, if you were at all intrigued by the promotional campaign and/or the tremendous word of mouth, I encourage you to get to the theater quick and see this before you have to wait for DVD. It’s a theater experience worth taking in.

“If you believe in God you must believe in the Devil.” Regardless of whether or not we agree with the tagline and standpoint of Cotton, by the time this movie is over you will believe that there are still original films being made that can scare and thrill us, make us think, and serve as a great example of why it’s so fun to see horror.