Thursday, October 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - Downtown, Los Angeles
An unexpected invasion of Wyatt Park’s (Peter Jae) private gym results in the death of his pregnant wife and a traumatic brain injury that’s left him with just a few months to live. Knowing his newborn daughter will never have the opportunity to get to know him or hear his voice, Wyatt starts recording every moment of his life for posterity. With his brother-in-law, Levi (Josh Kelly), Wyatt sets out to kill the mobsters who murdered his wife and leave a record so that his daughter can understand his final actions in life. Director James Cullen Bressack has been making his name in the action space for the past several years, and following challenges in movie-making over the past year, he decided to “give himself a movie” as a birthday present. Crewing and casting mostly off a personal Instagram post, the film features longtime Hollywood stunt players as the lead actors, driving the action forward. Working with his co-writer, David Josh Lawrence, THE WORKOUT is like no other action movie you have ever seen before. Told using found footage that frequently moves between multiple formats in successive shots, Bressack’s film presents the action with surprising and unique formalism. Set pieces are communicated through security footage, body-cam recordings, and a smartphone camera—often all in the same scene. The stunt work and fight choreography showcase the skills of multiple stunt performers, but lead actor Peter Jae, co-lead Josh Kelly, and UFC fighter Ashlee Evans-Smith are the big standouts. From beating up thirty goons in a row to sneaking into a mob boss’ compound, these three demonstrate their action experience with long, sustained takes that allow the viewer to see the skill required for successive falls, crashes, and the dynamic fight choreography. Sure to be one of the most experimental and entertaining screenings of the 2024 festival, follow Wyatt on his path to bloody revenge. (AUSTIN KING)