Fin: Meeting The Executioner, 'Hundreds of Beavers', and back to Lown Auditorium

This week’s notes column

On April 1, a few days before Wrestlemania descended on Philadelphia, I spent an evening among the boxers. 

The occasion was the world premiere of In the Company of Kings, a new documentary by a pair of British filmmakers, Steve Read and Robert Douglas, in which they came to the United States and interviewed a bunch of famous boxing champions, among them Philadelphia’s own Bernard Hopkins and Tim Witherspoon.

It’s a boxing movie, primarily shot in Philadelphia, that does not use the “R” word — Rocky — but focuses on real-life boxers. It also visits Fighter’s Heaven, a training camp Muhammad Ali maintained in Deer Lake, PA.

Both Hopkins and Witherspoon were on hand at the premiere, with a significant representation of what I like to call Philadelphia’s boxing community- a coterie of boxers, trainers, and other fight veterans, all with about a million old stories to tell. However, I appeared to be the only local media member who showed up; I had only heard about the premiere from a mention on a local Facebook page. 

I wrote about the movie and the premiere for the Philadelphia Inquirer here. The highlight of both, unquestionably, was Bernard Hopkins. In the film, we see him visiting the housing project where he grew up, holding court, and greeting old friends. 

A lot of boxers, including some interviewed in the film, don’t exactly get to older age with their mental faculties intact. But that’s not Bernard Hopkins- both in the movie and at the event, the soon-to-be-60-year-old was given to long speeches. They even had a Q&A period, which I don’t think got to any questions. 

I got to talk to Hopkins for about ten minutes, and adding to the surrealism, he repeatedly poked my chest for emphasis. Let’s say that after speaking to this former middleweight champion who kept fighting into his 50s, I’ll never be intimidated by an actor or director ever again. 

In the Company of Kings lands on all major VOD outlets on April 30. 

Bring on the Beavers 

The structure of the movie business these days doesn’t make it easy for there to be a cult hit, but one recent film has managed it. That’s Hundreds of Beavers, a wild slapstick comedy directed by Mike Cheslik. It’s in black and white, it’s almost entirely dialogue-free, has a budget of around $150,000, and is absolutely hilarious, while also looking like nothing you’ve ever seen. 

Hundreds of Beavers debuted at Fantastic Fest last fall before getting one-off screenings in various cities; it’s now on VOD. 

I never wrote a full review of Hundreds of Beavers because it’s one of those movies that, while I liked it a lot, I had a hard time having all that much to say about it. But you’re going to like this, trust me.