Black Cloud

Actor Rick Schroder (he broke my heart in The Champ) makes his debut as a writer-director with this uneven depiction of a young Indian boxer named Black Cloud (Eddie Spears) dealing with life on the reservation and major anger issues. Schroder (who also acts in the film) gets high marks for his depiction of the bloody sport of boxing, with vicious fight scenes that are engaging and real. (Even a street fight scene between Spears and Schroder himself gives the impression the actors walked away with some scars.) While Schroder’s effort here is admirable, sometimes it’s OK to cast your movie full of unknowns. Bad performances by Wayne Knight (Seinfeld’s Newman) and Peter Greene (Zed from Pulp Fiction) drag things down, with their casting coming off as a low-budget effort to get "names" into the film. Spears makes for a convincing boxer, although some of the heavier dramatic moments feel a bit beyond his reach. Julia Jones delivers a winning performance as his long-suffering girlfriend, while Tim McGraw makes for a damn good, sometimes shady sheriff. Sport film clichés and sappy moments hurt the film overall, products of somewhat uneven writing by Schroder. However, he does know his way around a fight scene, and would probably benefit from directing someone else’s script the next time out.