Despite its questionable use of mental illness as a plot device, there’s a lot to admire in Cassius Corrigan’s directing debut set in the world of MMA
There’s a Rocky-like energy about Huracán, a film that combines a gritty feel for the unloved urban landscape with a psychological-thriller plot and a setting in the ultraviolet world of mixed martial arts. Star Cassius Corrigan even looks a bit like the young Sylvester Stallone, but he’s gone one better: Corrigan is starring, writing and directing in this, his feature debut.
He plays Alonso Santos, a troubled young man in Miami who is diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder by a sympathetic court-appointed therapist named Isabela (Yara Martinez). Whenever Alonso feels threatened, his aggressive alter ego “Huracán” emerges. And since he’s on parole, facing homelessness and making his living in the (almost) anything-goes arena of MMA – AKA cage fighting – that’s fairly often.
