Streaming Sleepers: In WICK IS PAIN, ‘Wick’ Is Everything
The John Wick movies have become an established firmament for a lot of action fans next to what we’ve seen out of Southeast Asia, but achieving this milestone was no easy feat. Wick Is Pain, Jeffrey Doe’s documentary chronicling the pre-dawn of action choreography and stuntwork that would become the very bedrock of the titular IP under the stewardship of stunt stalwarts Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, and the production of the current four films beginning with the little indie that could and almost didn’t, paints a stark and vivid picture of just what exactly that journey looked like.
At two hours, Wick Is Pain invites you to the backroom meetings and deals, flashbacks of B-roll training footage of Stahelski and Leitch in their heyday, and the era of martial arts entertainment that became the nexus for creating their stunt training facility, 87Eleven. Stahelski’s involvement on Alex Proyas’s The Crow is the first major stop on Doe’s quest through the history of the John Wick franchise, in addition to the then-stuntman’s work on The Matrix films, in conjunction with Leitch’s upbringing and followed by the beginnings of what they nurtured over the years as their brand of stunt training, modeled off of the exemplary of Hong Kong stunt team rehearsals with the likes of Yuen Woo-ping.
It’s not long before the documentary inaugurates things a bit more into the making of John Wick and the painstaking process it took for the directors and leading man Keanu Reeves, as well as producers Basil Iwaynk and Erica Lee to make it happen, from financing and the rollercoaster of production to the nooks and crannies of post-production, and the mounting stresses shared by Leitch and Stahelski in the moments and months leading up to the film’s Fantastic Fest premiere and subsequent Fall release in 2014. The documentary also introduces many of the film’s lateral hands including writer Derek Kolstad and storyboard artist Todd Harris, in addition to stunt professionals J.J. Perry, Jon Valera, Eric Brown, Jonathan “Jojo” Eusebio, Jackson Spidell, Heidi and Renae Moneymaker, and Jeremy Marinas, in addition to actors Hu “Tiger” Chen and Daniel Bernhardt.
I do want to add that I found Marinas’ perspective on working with actor Donnie Yen on John Wick: Chapter 4 pretty insightful and illustrative, looking at how Yen is described as someone who takes the wheel to add his own ingredients to choreography on set. It’s an interesting little addendum going into what Yen has in store for the next John Wick milemarker, Caine which Yen is directing, and between this and 87Eleven’s Peacock documentary, Action, I kind of wonder if we’ll have another documentary on our hands that highlights what went into that one too, and even Ballerina for that matter. Additionally, you’ll be surprised to learn just who John Wick was written for before it landed in Reeves’ lap.
You can look at all the behind the scenes featurettes and reels you want when it comes to John Wick-anything, while I can earnestly say that Wick Is Pain takes you on a brutal, intrinsic, visceral journey that compels you to witness the toll that making a movie like the 2014 hit Summit Entertainment release and its successors takes. From the injuries on set and behind the scenes, to the first-hand recounts of the experiences throughout the course of the saga, Wick Is Pain presents an unyielding portrait of just what that pain entails on all ends – a profile of the camaraderie, candor, dissent, fallouts and hard-earned rewards, sprinkled with a touch of Reeves’s own spirited nature that’s become so tantamount to what’s made the hand-in-hand venture such an enduring and ongoing triumph.
Tap here to watch Wick Is Pain.
Streaming Sleepers is a column attributed to movie titles currently available on legitimate VOD/SVOD/FAST and digital platforms.
Lead image: Murray Close for Lionsgate
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
