Wes to Delphi
2026 · 14m · USA
Directed by A.J. Riggins
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A boxer spends his final day at the Charlotte gym where he trained for over a decade before leaving to pursue bigger dreams. The film lingers in quiet moments of introspection — breath, silence, unspoken bonds — treating sport as emotional expression rather than spectacle.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Riggins uses the ARRI Alexa 35 not for boxing-movie glamour but for intimacy — static close-ups of hands, corners, tape, building a portrait of place that makes leaving feel like grief.
Boxer's last day at the gym that raised him. Fourteen minutes. Frames the boxing film as a breakup story — that conceit could be moving or maudlin. Luca and Short Term 12 comparisons are wildly off-genre. The earnestness is concerning; sports drama at this length usually flattens.
A.J. Riggins frames a boxing film as breakup story at the real Charlotte gym where he trained for 14 years — the autobiographical specificity is the texture, and treating sport as breath-and-silence rather than spectacle is the right move.