• Consequence
  • Music
  • Film
  • TV
  • Heavy
Menu Consequence
Menu Shop Search Newsletter
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Live
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Contest
Advertisement
  • TV
  • TV Reviews

Mike Review: Hulu’s Tyson Biopic Lands With a Thud

I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie takes on the life of the infamous boxer

Mike Review Hulu Tyson Biopic
C-

Release Date

  • August 25, 2022

Cast

  • Trevante Rhodes, Russell Hornsby, Harvey Keitel, Laura Harrier, Li Eubanks, Olunike Adeliyi, B.J. Minor

Where to Stream

  • Hulu
Sam Rosenberg
August 19, 2022 | 12:00pm ET

    The Pitch: Violence has shaped much of Mike Tyson (Trevante Rhodes)’s life. Growing up in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, Tyson dealt with brutal beatings from bullies as often as he received and witnessed verbal and physical lashings at home. Fighting back seemed to be the easiest solution to the hate and hurt he faced, and the bloodier and harder his blows against his peers got, the stronger his determination to make a name for himself became.

    After a few stints in juvenile detention, a teenage Tyson got the chance to take his street brawling to the ring with the guidance of renowned boxing trainer Cus D’Amato (Harvey Keitel). Tyson’s prolific wins early in his burgeoning career earned him fame and wealth, launching the wunderkind from downtrodden obscurity into the bright and shiny American cultural spotlight. D’Amato even went as far as to act as a surrogate parent to the fatherless Tyson, a meaningful gesture were it not for D’Amato’s irony-free insistence that he’d help turn Tyson into “a beast” and “a monster.”

    As Tyson continued to embrace his celebrity lifestyle, a turbulent marriage to TV star Robin Givens (Laura Harrier) and a credible rape allegation from beauty pageant queen Desiree Washington (Li Eubanks) quickly upended his momentum. Boxing promoter Don King (Russell Hornsby) stepped in to support Tyson in averting these crises, but his own opportunistic agenda created even more financial and personal issues for the prizefighting champion.

    Advertisement
    Related Video

    Told across eight chapters in the Hulu miniseries Mike, Tyson’s journey is a tragic, all-too-familiar portrait of unresolved trauma, the painful pressures of fame, and how the intersection of the two reinforce an unrelenting cycle of self-destruction and hubris.

    An Automatic KO: Collaborating for the second time with I, Tonya screenwriter Steven Rogers, filmmaker Craig Gillespie’s newest directorial undertaking, Mike, adapts the life of infamous boxer Mike Tyson, spanning from his upbringing in the mid-70s to the late 2010s. The result is a thin and haphazard drama that does a disservice to the talent of its well-cast lead, and flattens the nuances behind Tyson’s complex background and tumultuous history.

    Like with Gillespie’s other unauthorized dramatization Pam & Tommy, Mike stirred controversy from Tyson himself, who lambasted Hulu for “stealing my story” and confirmed plans to produce a show of his own with Jamie Foxx playing him. Even without Tyson’s creative involvement, Mike barely makes a dent.

    Advertisement

    Right from the start, the limited series seems totally uninterested in interrogating the inner lives of its characters, instead constantly repeating information about them via voiceover as if worried the audience’s attention will wane and speeding through exposition like it’s in a rush to get to the next part. Along with its obnoxious fourth-wall breaking and a shoddy structure that hopscotches around time and place with careless abandon, Mike handpicks tropes from every celebrity biopic of the past decade and blends them into episodic mush.

    Mike Review Hulu Tyson Biopic

    Mike (Hulu)

    Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing: Despite Tyson’s criticisms, it’s still possible to take artistic liberties and produce a thematically rich tale out of how race, class, and gender affected his status as a young Black male athlete in America. Take, for example, Michael Mann’s commanding depiction of boxing legend Muhammad Ali during the social upheaval of the ‘60s in 2001’s Ali. Or Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski’s compelling 2016 miniseries The People vs. O.J. Simpson, which effectively captured the multifaceted cultural scope of football star O.J. Simpson’s 1994 trial.

    With Mike, however, Gillespie and Rogers simply apply the same method they used for I, Tonya, reconciling Tyson’s contradictions as both an abuser with material power and a victim of circumstance to sensationalist, slapdash effect.

    Advertisement

    The first crucial mistake Mike makes is having each episode feature cutaways of an adult Tyson recalling details from his difficult childhood and relationships to an auditorium filled with nameless, faceless spectators. This blunt framing device — of Tyson addressing an anonymous audience, speaking directly to the camera, and gesturing at the slideshow of photos behind him — technically riffs on Undisputed Truth, Tyson’s one-man show from 2013, but ultimately stands as a lazy and overbearing attempt to immerse us in his struggles with the limelight.

    Such a heavy-handed style might sort of be the point, an aptly abrasive way of emulating the thrust of Tyson’s experiences. But without letting the images speak for themselves, Mike constantly undermines itself with self-reflexive commentary, not letting its most pivotal beats a chance to breathe without some sort of meta interjection.

    From the excessive narration and the slo-mo imagery to the exhausting camerawork and the on-the-nose soundtrack, Gillespie’s elaborate Scorsese cosplay is about as off-putting and clumsy as the writing’s forced levity and allergy to subtext.

    Advertisement

    Almost every single dramatic moment is spelled out, to the point where you could anticipate from a mile away any given scene you’d expect to see from a work of this genre. Insert a raunchy montage of Tyson’s sexual exploits here, throw in a scene of Tyson getting taken advantage of by King or D’Amato there, add in a moment where a close family member tells Tyson that he’s being mistreated, and voila, you have your biopic!

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
Advertisement

More on this topic

  • Harvey Keitel
  • Laura Harrier
  • Russell Hornsby
  • Trevante Rhodes

Sign up for updates

Subscribe to our email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.

Advertisement

Popular Stories

Latest Stories

Reginald the Vampire Review Syfy

Reginald the Vampire Is Here for a Good Time: Review

October 5, 2022

A Friend of the Family Review

A Friend of the Family Review: A Slow-Burn True Crime Series That's Truly Harrowing

October 4, 2022

Saturday Night Live Season 48

SNL Kicks Off a New Era with Season 48 Premiere: Review

October 2, 2022

Entergalactic Review Kid Cudi Netflix

Entergalactic Review: Kid Cudi's Next Album Is Also a Low-Key Charming Animated Rom-Com

September 29, 2022

Interview With the Vampire Review AMC

Interview With the Vampire Review: AMC Delivers a Proudly Queer Take on the Anne Rice Saga

September 22, 2022

Dahmer Evan Peters Netflix Review

Dahmer Review: Ryan Murphy's Serial Killer Drama Puts the Victims First

September 22, 2022

Andor Review Star Wars Diego Luna

Andor Is a Great Star Wars Story That Isn't a Great TV Show: Review

September 20, 2022

House of the Dragon Episode 5 Recap

House of the Dragon Episode 5 Recap: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked

September 18, 2022

Advertisement

News

  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Tours
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture

Reviews

  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews

Features

  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Cover Stories
  • Lists
  • Guides
  • CoSign
  • Song of the Week

Live

  • Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Photo Galleries
  • Music Instruments & Gear

Heavy

  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts

More

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Wellness
  • Giveaways

Other sites

  • Heavy Consequence
  • Consequence Media
  • Modern Drummer
  • About
  • Privacy policy
  • Advertising
  • Work For Us
  • Terms
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Download our app

  • Get it on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Consequence
Current story

Mike Review: Hulu's Tyson Biopic Lands With a Thud

Menu Shop Search Newsletter
Consequence
News
  • News
  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Tours
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture
Reviews
  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews
Features
  • All Features
  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Cover Stories
  • Lists
  • Guides
  • CoSign
  • Song of the Week
Live
  • Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Photo Galleries
  • Music Instruments & Gear
Podcasts
  • The Opus
  • Kyle Meredith With...
  • Stanning BTS
  • The Story Behind the Song
  • The What
  • Going There with Dr. Mike
  • The Rome and Duddy Show
Videos
  • Interviews
  • Two for the Road
  • First Time I Heard
  • When I Made
  • Battle of the Bandmates
  • Peer 2 Peer
  • Essays
  • Fan Theories
Heavy
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts
  • Premieres
  • Culture
  • Beyond the Boys Club
  • Mining Metal
Shop
  • Shop
  • Giveaways

Follow Consequence

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Close
Close
 

Loading Comments...