Glass Chin is a 2014 American crime drama film written and directed by Noah Buschel, starring Corey Stoll, Billy Crudup, Marin Ireland, Yul Vazquez and Kelly Lynch. It premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Plot
Bud Gordon (Corey Stoll), a burned-out former boxing champ, lives with his girlfriend Ellen Doyle (Marin Ireland). He has retired from boxing after an unexpected loss in his last match, leading many throughout the film to mock him as a "glass chin".
Bud takes up an offer to train Kid Sunshine (Malcolm Xavier), an up-and-coming welterweight contender, for a future match. Meanwhile, he meets JJ Cook (Billy Crudup), a slick Manhattan entrepreneur and crime boss, for a job. JJ assigns him to debt collecting, partnering him with Roberto Flash (Yul Vazquez), a criminal under his pay. During an assignment, Roberto asks Bud to sneak him into a building, as the debtor recognizes Roberto from prior visits and would not have let him in. As they reach the debtor's apartment, Roberto asks Bud to wait in the car. The day after, Bud discovers that the debtor was killed. Confronting a sleepy Roberto over the phone, Bud realizes that he had been played: as he was sneaking inside to let Roberto in, Bud was recorded on camera, framing him for the murder. JJ, possessing the footage, plans to blackmail Bud: Get Kid Sunshine to throw his match in the first round, or the footage will be released to the police.
Bud's relationship with his girlfriend crumbles and it is revealed that JJ was the one who screwed Bud in his last match. Before the bout, Roberto confronts him outside Kid Sunshine's locker room, pleading with him to do the right thing and let Kid Sunshine lose. A voiceover for the commentary is heard, detailing the match and Kid Sunshine surviving the first round. Outside, Bud, listening to the match on his limo's radio, hears police sirens. When asked by the driver why the police are after him, Bud replies: "Right hand lead".
Cast
Corey Stoll as Bud Gordon
Billy Crudup as JJ Cook
Marin Ireland as Ellen Doyle
Yul Vazquez as Roberto Flash
Kelly Lynch as Mae Graham
Katherine Waterston as Patricia "Petals" O'Neal
Elizabeth Rodriguez as Rita Sierra
Brendan Sexton III as Jimmy Musial
Michael Chernus as Brian Colby
David Johansen as Stanley Loori
Ron Cephas Jones as Ray Ellington
John Ventimiglia as Jack Marchiano
Halley Feiffer as Kathryn Glassman
Ivan Martin as Detective Gerard Herko
Anthony Arkin as Homer Nicholas
Rodrigo Lopresti as Ben McLemore
Albert Jones as Don Marbury
Malcolm Xavier as Kid Sunshine
Emily Fleischer as Maurine Stuart
John Douglas Thompson as Lou Gibson
Steven Marcus as Gil Dunphy
Michael McCartney as Aaron Judlowe
Cortez Nance Jr. as Hernandez Alou
Kapil Bawa as Mingus Ali Khan
Charlie V. Wilson as Robert Aitken
Olivia Killingsworth as Caron Levis
Armand Dahan as Claude Papillion
Marina Dee as Lidia Bernik
Woodrow Morton as Soen Mayo
Harry Keitt as Floyd Judah
Production
Shortly after Corey Stoll finished filming the first season of House of Cards, Noah Buschel recruited him to play the lead role in Glass Chin. Stoll had previous boxing training from his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in the 2011 film Midnight in Paris. He trained for three weeks at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York. Billy Crudup was given the script by Yul Vazquez, who had previously worked with Buschel.
Buschel categorizes the film "in the ex-boxer genre of Budd Schulberg's On The Waterfront, Jim Thompson's After Dark, My Sweet, and Walter Mosley's Leonid McGill books." The film was shot all over New York City, including in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in New Jersey, on a Red digital camera. It was Buschel's third film with cinematographer Ryan Samul.
Release
Glass Chin premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2014, where it was one of 12 films selected for the World Narrative Competition. It was given a limited theatrical release on June 26, 2015.
Buschel wrote about the cynicism of the distributors who falsely advertised Glass Chin as a gun movie.