4. Knuckle (2011)
IMBD Score: 6.8
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Ever wonder where the “What happens in Fight Club, stays in Fight Club” rule might have originated? My guess would be somewhere in the extremely close-knit (and unknown) world of the Irish Traveller community. Although, really, they would never talk about nor admit it.
The Knuckle takes an incredible look at three Irish Traveller families, over 12 years, and delivers on so many levels. The fighting among the various groups—scheduled or not—is as shocking as it is mysterious, the kind of flesh-meets-flesh imagery that makes it seem like barbaric times, and not this decade. The Joyces, Nevins, and Quinn-McDonaghs all provide a unique vantage into each family, including why they despise the other families entirely. It’s fast, with dialogue that would make even Brad Pitt’s character in Snatch tilt his head in confusion, with such in-depth access it’s astonishing the filmmakers made it out of the camps with all their limbs.