Fighting with My Family: a genuine, feel-good feature – even if you aren’t a WWE fan

Fighting with My Family is a 2019 biographical sports comedy film based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, depicting the WWE career of professional wrestler Paige. It stars Florence Pugh as Paige, along with Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey and Vince Vaughn, and is written and directed by Stephen Merchant. Dwayne Johnson executive produces and also appears in the film.

It premiered at Sundance Film Festival on 28 January 2019, was released on 14 February 2019 in the United States. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Much like the sport it celebrates, Fighting with My Family muscles past clichés with a potent blend of energy and committed acting that should leave audiences cheering.”

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale. Nick Allen of RogerEbert. com opined in a three-out-offour star review: “Even though Fighting with My Family is undoubtedly about branding the WWE as a fantasy factory, its biggest strengths are its wit and surprisingly big heart.”