Trading the Trading Floor for the Ring

Read Time:5 Minute, 51 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Unlicensed
–

Genre: Drama, Sport
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director(s): Mark Hampton
Writer(s): Mark Hampton
Cast: Mark Hampton, Sarah Diamond, Mark Tunstall, Jack Newhouse, Matt Ray Brown
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 London International Film Festival, VOD release (iTunes, Google, Amazon Prime, and Rakuten) on November 17th, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: UNLICENSED is the kind of film that understands the real battle always happens long before anyone steps foot into a boxing ring. Danny Goode was once a man who defined himself by winning—career, financial, and the thrill of a life lived fast. But after a stint in prison for insider trading, he emerges into a world that has moved on without him. The shame doesn’t just linger; it settles into every relationship he once took for granted. In just the first few minutes, it’s clear the film isn’t interested in glamorizing the comeback. It wants you to feel the weight of a man who’s starting from below zero.

Mark Hampton chooses not to play a disgraced banker desperate for redemption simply; he shows us someone who doesn’t even know what redemption looks like anymore. Danny clings to old patterns like a lifeline—bad decisions, quick fixes, the illusion of control. Gambling becomes his secret security blanket, a vice disguised as a path forward. He owes the world an apology, but the hardest person to convince is himself. The film never lets him avoid that uncomfortable truth.

The boxing angle isn’t just a gimmick. It’s the metaphor and the reality. Danny stepping back into a world that requires discipline is the perfect contradiction—he’s chasing fast money while surrounded by people who grind day after day for scraps of opportunity. Those scenes hammer home the theme: effort without entitlement. When Danny is in the locker room, you can see the gulf between men who fight for survival and a man used to buying his way out of consequences. It’s a clever contrast that the movie returns to.

This is where Hampton impresses behind the camera. He keeps the story focused and human. There are no montages promising greatness, no cartoonish villain waiting in the final round. The antagonist is the emptiness Danny feels when he isn’t pretending to have everything under control. His estranged wife, played with warmth by Sarah Diamond, is never reduced to a one-note obstacle. She’s tired, protective, and trying to keep her own life afloat. Their son watches a father figure reappear with more baggage than stability, and that heartbreak isn’t sugarcoated. Danny’s attempts to reconnect aren’t celebrated simply for existing—they’re judged, measured, challenged.

By focusing on fallout instead of triumph, the film avoids the biggest cliché of the boxing genre: the myth that one big win fixes everything. UNLICENSED refuses that narrative. Even when the fight enters the picture, the stakes aren’t title shots or fame. It’s literally a cash prize and a chance to not collapse under debt and shame. The scale of the conflict may appear smaller on paper, but it is more consequential. Danny thinks this is a shortcut to proving he has value again, but the movie repeatedly shows him needing to confront why he keeps making the same mistakes.

Hampton’s performance grows stronger the more Danny is forced to drop the act. His face tells the real story long before he says anything out loud: the panic of someone terrified that without the identity of “winner,” there’s nothing left underneath. He’s not portrayed as a hero, nor a villain—just a flawed man learning how easy it is to mistake pride for purpose. When the movie gives him flashes of clarity—a moment with his son, a crack in his bravado—they feel earned.

Mark Tunstall, as the man who pulls Danny into the unlicensed fight world, brings a quiet intimidation—someone who knows desperation and doesn’t need to show off. Friends and acquaintances from Danny’s former life treat him like a cautionary tale, not a victim, reinforcing how quickly privilege is revoked when the world decides you no longer deserve it. These interactions lend the movie a lived-in texture, a reminder that reputations don’t rebuild overnight.

The boxing scenes themselves are grounded in exhaustion—messy, unglamorous, and physical in all the ways Danny hasn’t been for years. They’re not choreographed to look cool; they’re constructed to feel like consequences. Every punch is another debt coming due. By the time the final bout arrives, the audience understands that whether he wins or loses isn’t what matters. It’s whether he stops lying to himself long enough to feel something real.

As a debut feature, UNLICENSED is confident and serious about what it wants to explore. It isn’t selling inspiration. It’s telling the story of someone who has to scrape away every excuse before he can find a reason worth fighting for. The film challenges the notion that redemption is a gift. It shows that forgiveness—especially from yourself—must be earned with honesty.

Danny’s greatest challenge isn’t his opponent across the ring. It’s finally facing the life he built on top of denial. And while UNLICENSED doesn’t promise a perfectly wrapped transformation, it does prove that the first step toward redemption is choosing to throw a punch at the right target: your own bullshit. Strong performances. Clear stakes. A gritty, grounded drama that understands the fight is never really over.

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[photo courtesy of FIVE CARS FILMS, ROOMS101 PRODUCTIONS]

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