Real-life boxing champion Kali Reis makes an indelible impression here as both the lead actor and the co-writer of this dark, unsettling if slightly predictable tale of revenge, violence and sex trafficking, directed and co-written by Josef Kubota Wladyka. Sure, the protagonist she plays goes by the not-dissimilar Kaylee or KO, is also a boxer and has the same half-Native American, half-Cape Verdean ethnic background as Reis. But it takes proper acting talent, boosted by strong direction from Wladyka, to pull the film along the way Reis does. She’s vulnerable, frightening and relentlessly physical.
First met being prepped for a fight by her trainer (Shelly Vincent, also a real-life boxer), 29-year-old Kaylee’s career is nearly at an end. If she’s made any money out of it, then that clearly went up her arm in a drug habit she’s only recently kicked, judging by the women’s shelter where she sleeps with a razor tucked inside her cheek just in case someone jumps her in the night.
