If one of the advantages of filmed live events is providing the at-home audience a front-row seat, this is more like about the eighth row, wisely opting for a wider view.Īs for the content, Tyson - loose and playful, if not always easy to understand - is at his best in the early going, recounting his difficult, brutal childhood, uncertain genetic origins and frequent brushes with the law. Strictly in TV terms, Lee has done an admirable job of bringing the 86-minute performance to the screen, for the most part avoiding tight close-ups because Tyson’s body and movements are such a part of the show, working up a noticeable sweat as he prowls the stage. Yet while Tyson has been embraced as an entertainer, the more troubling aspects of his biography require the sort of friendly audience that attended this performance in July, and it’s likely one’s appreciation of “ Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth” will be determined in part by whether the title itself (which also graces a companion book) can be taken at face value.

If this does end up being his follow-up to The Irishman, now that the Sinatra project looks completely dead, I've got faith that the filmmaker and Foxx will not - I apologize - pull any punches.Spike Lee’s presentation of Mike Tyson’s one-man autobiographical stage show is messy, energetic, muscular - in many respects, bearing a resemblance to the different stages of the former heavyweight champ’s style in the ring. One need look no further than Ray, in which Foxx starred, to see how dull, predictable, and compartmentalized biopics can become even with good actors involved. The fear is that, like so many biopics, the film will serve as vaguely sullied hagiography for a complicated public figure who, for better or worse, deserves to have his story told by an empathetic ear like Scorsese. Jamie Foxx: Yeah, he’s attached, and it’s-Mike Tyson’s life is one of the most amazing American stories.įoxx is correct in that Tyson's story offers innumerable pockets of thematic fascination, from the sheer spectacle of violence to athlete culture to spousal abuse and far beyond. Screen Rant: It’s a go? Martin Scorsese’s still attached? I know you were attached, what’s the update on that? Screen Rant: Speaking of getting punched, one of the most polarizing lives of the past thirty years has been Mike Tyson. Here's the exchange between Foxx and Screen Rant:

Mike tyson undisputed truth streaming