SFIFF 55: The Last Gladiators

I don't know what this says about me, but I loved watching the tough guys in this excellent doc about sanctioned violence in the NHL beat the crap out of each other.  It was a complete adrenaline rush!  There will be people who laugh at rather than with these bruisers, but I so appreciated the quietly unapologetic, sometimes gleeful logic of the film's central character, Montreal Canadiens star Chris Nilan.  He's a sort of heroic archetype, and his profound maladjustment to ordinary life didn't change that for me.  It's a great film, funny, thrilling, and compassionate.