Director Osmany Rodriguez’s “Miguel Wants to Fight” is a lot like a Gen Z version of “Max Keeble’s Big Move” mixed with “Three O’Clock High.” It’s a coming of age movie about a teen who makes a self realization in the midst of a big move to another town. Except the premise for the movie is what you see in the title. Our main character is teenage Miguel who is looking for a fight before he leaves; except it’s a tad more complicated than that.
Miguel is a young teen who hangs with his three friends every day. They do nothing but watch anime, play video games, and often get in to fights with other groups of teens. That is except Miguel often does what he can to avoid a fist fight. Miguel learns that his mom is uprooting their family to Albany for a new job, and on his final days at his city he decides he wants to prove himself and get in to a fist fight. But that proves to be harder than it seems.
I really did enjoy “Miguel Wants to Fight” as a short, simple, and funny comedy about real teenagers that are also facing their own individual obstacles. This become especially true as high school is on the verge of ending and college is approaching. The writers have a fun time staging animated fantasy sequences in anime styles that is used to convey conflicts, and how they envision certain scenarios heightened for the sake of their mental health. There’s even a pretty funny fantasy fight scene that pays tribute to the “Enter the Dragon” tournament scene. The cast are all collectively very good in their performances, especially Tyler Dean Flores.
He manages to inspire some chuckles, especially during his awkward attempts to pick fights with various candidates. The problem I had thematically is that the whole concept doesn’t lead in to anything bigger. Sure Miguel wants a fight but writers Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion miss out on a big opportunity to position substantial themes. “Miguel Wants to Fight” could very well have become an interesting story about rites of passage, manhood, and male role models. The whole pursuit of a fight and how it stands to prove something to everyone really could have and should have allowed for an opportunity to dig in to the whole concept of growing up and maturity.
But the writers seem to avoid those heavier themes at every turn in favor of something much more superficial. That’s not exactly a bad thing depending on your expectations, but “Miguel Wants to Fight” begins and ends in exactly the same place with not much else to take away from what we’d just witnessed. Did Miguel solve his problem ultimately? Did he even have a problem? Why was fighting so important when all was said and done? In either case, “Miguel Wants to Fight” is pretty good once you meet it halfway and accept it on its terms.
Now Streaming on Hulu.