Out of the darkness, some voices rise above the others. At the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, director Josef Wladyka is that voice. The creator first made waves in 2014 when his debut “Manos Sucias” (Dirty Hands)—a harrowing narcos story concerning Colombian drug trafficking—netted Wladyka Tribeca’s jury award for Best Director. Since then, he’s helmed episodes of acclaimed television programs, such as “Narcos” and “Terror.” Wladyka returns to Tribeca with “Catch the Fair One,” a bristling, horrific thriller executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, concerning a Native American woman boxer who voluntarily enters a human trafficking ring to find her kidnapped younger sister.
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For two years, Kaylee aka… KO (Kali Reis, a real-life boxing world champion in the super lightweight and middleweight divisions) has been searching for her sister Weeta (Mainaku Borrero). No longer fighting, she now works shifts in a dingy hole-in-the-wall diner, wherein she covertly sneaks customers’ scraps of food into a takeout tray for herself. Though she still trains with her faithful, supportive trainer Brick (Shelly Vincent, another real-life boxer), the memory of her sister perpetually haunts her: She sees apparitions of Weeta dressed in a red coat, grey cap in other people. The fantastical elements blended with the neorealism strategy of using actual fighters enlivens “Catch the Fair One” with a sincere, yet forceful tone.
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Following the opening minutes, which captivated me to no end, Wladyka’s grip slightly slips. KO discovers an ad selling a native girl that bears a passing resemblance to her sister. She decides to go undercover as a sex worker only to be kidnapped by Bobby (Daniel Henshall), the son of a local “businessman” and sex ring operator, Willie (Kevin Dunn). The men in this world, to quote Bob Dylan, aren’t worth the blood that runs through their veins: They beat, rape, and sell women without remorse, all while leading “normal” family lives. As self-defense, KO keeps a razor tucked away inside the side of her mouth. And believe me, that tidy razor often comes in handy as she sifts through the illegal strata powering this human trafficking enterprise. In that regard, “Catch the Fair One” is often be a cathartic bloody mess.
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The unfocused plotting, at intermittent points, however, doesn’t always match the pints of spilled blood. And sometimes Reis, a first-time actor, struggles to match the emotional gravity of the scene. That’s not to say Reis is totally out of her element. She more than holds her own, offering a kind of truthful vulnerability to match the unquestionable physicality. Her interactions with Brick, for instance, are delightful and open. When she holds hostage Bobby’s son and wife (Tiffany Chu, “Ms. Purple”) an intended fish-out-of-water-worry washes over once-imposing stature. These shocks pulsate throughout “Catch the Fair One.”
Cinematographer Ross Giardina’s roving single camera suspends one’s breath: In a sparring scene, wherein K-O goes against a boxer who’s double her size, for instance, an unrelenting steadicam hypnotically tracks the balletic motions of the warring pugilists to dizzying effects. Likewise the tactile markers of this universe, this rural forested snow-blanketed terrain physically grounds the frame akin to Nia DaCosta’s “Little Woods” or Jeremy Saulnier’s “Hold the Dark.” For example, the cracking, peeling posters that accentuate her training center don’t just imbue these starkly lit compositions, the orange hues pop like rotten tangerines, with a sense of grittiness. We know help is always going to be very, very far away.
“Catch the Fair One” certainly isn’t perfect. Much is made of human traffickers vying specifically for native girls. The reason behind the fetishization, however, isn’t provided. Rather the cultural thread flaps in the narrative wind. The same can be said of how operations like these work: What is the system by which these women are sold away?
The copious amount of drone shots, whereby cars drive through the cold wooded landscape, often dispels the thrilling undertones inherent in the harrowing drama. And the visual language periodically hits its intended point with minimal grace: At one point a celestial light shines over KO, at another, editor Benjamin Rodriguez, Jr goes to great lengths to highlight an ominous pocket knife. Even so, the thrilling energy of the primary narrative, KO looking for Weeta, thrums with an intensity that disallows this 85-minute film to swell to inevitable inertness.
By the waning minutes, when the film’s glimmering neorealism energy returns, cleansing the abrupt conclusion with a spellbound spirituality, Wladyka has assuredly provided a distinct vision that pulses to potent degrees. “Catch the Fair One,” a textured story of how festering loss leads to unblinking resolution for justice, wins in a knockout. [A-]
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