Boxing Gym
In choosing Austin's Lord's Gym--founded by wiry rat-tailed ex-pro fighter Richard Lord, who presides with a no-bullshit air of calm authority--documentarian Frederick Wiseman couldn't have delivered a more quintessential boxing scene. Lord's embodies all of the qualities familiar to the traditional culture of boxing, one of the rare athletic institutions that has never been segregated along lines of race, and which continues to welcome anyone regardless of age or (now) gender, so long as they are willing to work their hardest. At once a noble and humble sport, Wiseman invites the audience to be a fly on boxing's wall, plain and simple, which is great, but sometimes a fly's life is a little too uneventful for the restless.
by Marjorie Skinner