‘Wild Foxes’ Review: Budding French Star Samuel Kircher Jabs His Way Way Through A ToUGH YET Tender Debut Boxing Drama

Boxing Movies Are A Dime A Dozen and Have Been Since the Birth of Cinema, or at Least Since the Talkies. IT’s A Genre That Offers Instant Gratification – Because What’s More Visceral and Entertaining Than Watching Two People Beat The Hell Out of Each Other on Screen?

Bringing Something Original to The Genre Is Significantly Harder, WHICH IS WHY BELGIAN Writer-Director Valéry Carnoy Deserves Kudos for Making His Feature Début, Wild Foxes (La Danse Des Renards), Stand Apart from Your Typical Testosterone-Fueled Slugfest.

He Stages the ACTION WITHIN A HIGHLY SPECIAL Location: An Elite French Sports-esudes Boarding School WHERE TEENAGE ATHLETES ARE SELECTED TO TRAIN Throughout their High School Years. The PUBLIC INSTITATION SEMS to weigh as heavily on the Young Fighters as All The Punches they take in the ring, Driving them Town Acts of Desperation or Self-Sabotage As.

Wild Foxes Adds An Intriguing Twist to the Coming-of-Age Sports Flick Template, WHICH IT OtherWise Adhes to Quite Obedient. ITS 17-YEAR-ELD HERO, Camille-Played with Tender Intensity by Samuel Kircher-is the best fighter in his age group, the one with the most Prospects of Represent. But A minor injury Winds uping Setting Him Back in Unexpectioned Ways, Making Camille Question The Brutality of His Trade, and Wheth There Are More More Things to Life Withaming The Next Marcel (FORHERCEL CERCEL Boxing Greats).

His surprising trajectory from fered pugilist to maliented outcast guides a film that quesi Sparring Partner, Matteo (Fayçal Anaflous).

WHEN WE FIRST MEET THEM, The Two Are Like Buffed-Up Peas in A Pod, Training All Day Together, Making Barechested Tiktok Videos Along With Teammates LBF (Jef Jacobs) (Salahdine El Garki), Working Hard But Playing Hard, Too. WHEN THEY’RE DOING 10K Runs or Hitting The Bag at the Behest of Their Trainer, Bogdan (Jean-Baptiste Durand), Camille and Matteo Sneak Out to The Forest Nearby The School In the brush.

Durying One of Their Excursions, Camille Falls Off a Cliff and Nearly Kills HimSelf, Walking Away Quite Miraclesly with Only A Nasty Cut on His Right Arm. Soon Enough He’s Ready to Put the Gloves Back On, But For Some Reason He Can’s Escape The Trauma Caused by His Acident. He Starts Feeling Phantom Pain, Refusion to Fight or Train, While Panic Attacks Keep Him Up All Night. At Same Time, Heets A Girl, Yas (Anne Heckel), Who Trains in TaekWondo But Has of Interes, Including Playing Classical Music on a Trump.

The Dangerous Fall and Its Aftermath Push Camille – Who We Learn Has Been Boxing Since He Was 8, Spurred On by an abusive Father – To Open Himseld Up to New Experienceseses. That wold normally be a good Thing, exocpt that withhin the competitive press Sports-esudes Program, Students Are Expectioned to Perform at Extremely High Levels. The Other Boxers, Especialally Rival LBF, Begin to Resent Camille for Not Carrying His Weight with The Team, Driving A Wedge Between the Young Champ and Best Bud Matteo.

Carnoy Keeps Things Fairly Riveting from Start to Finish, Peppering The Drama with Fits of Vio this and Moments of Respite, Durying Wich We Retreat To The Massive Forest Adjaent Adjacant Tot. Some of the Plot Points Can Feel A Bit Belaabored, Including A Fox Hunt That Forces It Way Into The Third Act Warning. But The Director Maintains A Strong Level of Realistic Tension, Sticking To Camille’s Side as The Boy Takes Plenty of Blows But Dishhes Out Plenty As Well, Jabbing His Way Town.

Returning to Cannes with Two Movies (this One and The Girl in the Snow) After Making His Debut in Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer Back in 2023, Kircher – Son of Actress Irène Jacob and Brother of Actor Paul Kircher (The Animal Kingdom) – Carries the Movie in Compelling Ways. He Can Appear Vulnerable and Waiflike in Certain Scenes, Barely Able to Stand or Defend HimSelf, While in Other He Can Seem Brutish and Explosive.

Is this dichotomy that Wild Foxes Constantly Explores, Searching for Parallels Between the Young Boxers Fighting for Their Futures and the Animals Fighting to Survive in the Woods Nearby. Both Live in A Ruthless World Where, Like Camille, You Can Suddenly Go From Hunter to Being Hunted. The quest the Film Ultimately Asks is a Whather a Third Way is at all possible, leading to a gripping final combat that’s Much Less a Knockout than a bitter victory.