Fighting with My Family is a heartwarming comedy based on the incredible true story of WWE Superstar Paige. Born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Paige and her brother Zak are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training program, she must leave her family and face this new, cut-throat world alone.
What do critics say about Fighting with My Family?
Fighting with My Family has an impressive 93 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The critics’ consensus reads: “Much like the sport it celebrates, Fighting with My Family muscles past clichés with a potent blend of energy and committed acting that should leave audiences cheering.”
Mara Reinstein for Us Weekly
Both an offbeat comedy and classically rousing underdog tale, this indie film’s heart somehow exceeds the size of Dwayne Johnson’s bulging biceps.
Johnny Oleksinski for the New York Post
Plenty of family comedies include some grappling, but there’s just one I can think of that boasts a piledriver.
THE UPSIDE REVIEWS: WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING ABOUT THE UPSIDE?
Justin Chang for the Los Angeles Times
Within the context of a sport that thrives on artifice, writer-director Stephen Merchant spins a story whose emotions feel entirely genuine.
Manohla Dargis for the New York Times
It’s often broadly funny but never mean or patronizing; it takes the Knights, their eccentricities and quixotic aspirations seriously, but not enough to squelch the fun.
Jake Coyle for the Associated Press
It’s a compelling and likeable cast (Frost, in particular, is a standout), and Merchant keeps the film, for all its sports-movie clichés, mostly lively, good-hearted and consistently funny.
David Fear for Rolling Stone
What’s surprising is how well all of this suplex-to-nuts biopic works…[but] see it for Florence Pugh’s fireplug turn.
A DOG’S WAY HOME REVIEWS: WHAT DO CRITICS SAY ABOUT A DOG’S WAY HOME?
Katie Walsh for Nerdist
You’ll want to stand up and cheer when Paige triumphs in this winning family wrestling dramedy… just might make a few more wrestling fans while it’s at it, too.
Joshua Rothkopf for Time Out
The boastful, performative nature of WWE, spiked with mini-dramas and constant role-playing, becomes the lingua franca of an atypical household in Fighting with My Family, the sweetest of comedies despite a sizable number of body slams.
Leah Greenblatt for Entertainment Weekly
A movie about as subtle as the “bowling ball to the bollocks” one hopeful grunt has to take early on, but still somehow a winning one.
Nick Allen for RogerEbert.com
Even though Fighting with My Family is undoubtedly about branding the WWE as a fantasy factory, its biggest strengths are its wit and a surprisingly big heart.
GLASS REVIEWS: WHAT ARE THE CRITICS SAYING ABOUT GLASS?
A.A. Dowd for AV Club
A shamelessly formulaic but fairly irresistible crowd-pleaser with a weird pedigree.
Kate Erbland for indieWire
The beats of Fighting With My Family are comfortingly familiar, and the soap opera pomp of the wrestling world is eye-popping to both fans and neophytes alike, but it’s Pugh that is always fresh, surprising, and wily.
John DeFore for the Hollywood Reporter
A couple of scenes with The Rock don’t energize a run-of-the-mill sports story.
Dennis Harvey for Variety
Fighting with My Family may not be an Oscar contender but it has enough wit, heart, energy and good cheer to make it a fun watch even for non-wrestling fans.
Fighting with My Family is out in cinemas on February 27, 2019.