The boxing movies formula – arrogant but determined go-getter faces uphill battle and training montage to take on personal issues and superior veteran contender – is one that has been honed and sharped since Rocky defined it for the mainstream in 1976. There have been an astounding number of excellent additions to the sports sub-genre (Warrior, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, and just last year, Creed, to name but a few) and many more middling efforts to boot. Bleed for This may not be one that goes down in history as a boxing great but with a knockout performance from star Miles Teller and plenty of heart and good humor, it’s enough of a contender to warrant ringside seats.

Teller stars as Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Pazienza, a lightweight prizefighter of robust Italian heritage. Though brash and cocky, Paz’s vices are unique. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He’s never done drugs – Advil included – in his life. Rather, Paz gets punch-drunk, taking slugs in the ring like a whack-a-mole and smirking through a blood-red grin all the more. Vinny’s father Angelo (Game of Thrones’ Ciarán Hinds) and questionable manager Lou (the always unsettling Ted Levin) pimp the cocksure stud out to fights they know Vinny probably won’t win while his mother (Katey Sagal doing her best Edie Falco impression) hides behind an altar, rubbing her rosary and praying that Vinny won’t wind up back in the hospital. A place he tends to frequent post-fight.

When Lou publicly denounces Vinny after a particularly embarrassing loss, his only remaining option is to train under the washed up and perennially hungover Kevin Rooney (an excellent and almost unrecognizable Aaron Eckhart), who back in his heyday trained the great Mike Tyson but has since moved onto battling his way to the bottom of the bottle. Moving up two weight classes, Vinny embarks on the familiar comeback tour before his world comes crashing down when he severs his spinal cord in a head on vehicular collision.

It is in the aftermath of the crash that Bleed for This finds its strength and breaks away from the pack. Trapped in a halo (a fiberglass cast that holds Vinny head in place with screws directly through the skull), Vinny continues to train against all odds and here we see Teller rise to the task of drawing us into this amazing true story of perseverance amidst blinding stubbornness and impossible odds.

Teller, who has for quite some time been one of the best young actors working today, is well-matched for the role. Blending Paz’s arrogance with Teller’s distinct likable asshole charm, the 29-year old Pennsylvania native, doing a damn fine Rhode Island Italian accent I might add, makes us feel for a character who might otherwise be noxiously single-minded in the hands of lesser performers. His steadfast determination to reenter the ring no matter what the cost – a flustered doctor tells him that were he to even move his neck the wrong way, let alone get beneath the bench press and continue his workout regimen, he way never walk again – makes for a training sequence that’s as gripping and anxiety-wracked as the best of them. Wrought with sorrow and flashes of hope, the emotionally heavy middle adds depth and compassion to Paz’s journey and makes his return all the more impactful later.

Ben Younger, whose resume has seen very little activity since his 2000 debut Boiler Room, has a knack for moving things along swiftly and Bleed For This clips along at an admirable pace. Younger directs the boxing bouts with finesse, using staccato edits to heighten the anticipation of the next hit just as when Teller is beneath the bench sporting that unsightly halo, we cringe every time he may or may not knock himself. His wide-lens shots convince the audience that Teller is indeed in the ring, taking shots to the noggin and returning them in kind, and the excitement is palpable. But while the script – which Younger also wrote – may fall victim to the sting of familiarity, the comeback director nonetheless happens upon a promising sequence of humor, heart and fisticuffs that punch, jab and duck like The Pazmanian Devil himself.

CONCLUSION: It may not quite float like a butterfly or sting like a bee but ‘Bleed for This’ rides on the greatness of Miles Teller and Aaron Eckhart’s killer performances to tell a somewhat predictable true life story with soulful playfulness and showman’s pizazz.