Undercard Review: Wanda Sykes Fights a Losing Battle with a Heavy Script

Director: Tanya Hamilton

Cast: Wanda Sykes, Bentley Green, Roselyn Sánchez, Berto Colón, Estella Kahiha, Xavier Mills, and William Stanford Davis.

My Rating: 5.5/10

The Verdict Box

Undercard is a messy, fascinating showcase for Wanda Sykes, and not much else, where she carries the film with her energy, sharpness, and exasperated charm, but everything around her struggles to keep up, where watching it is like witnessing a high-wire act where the performer is brilliant, but the net is riddled with holes.

The Full Review: Sykes Sweats, the Script Stumbles

Who expected to watch Wanda Sykes ever lead a boxing drama, and yet here we are. 

She plays Cheryl “No Mercy” Stewart, a former champion turned sober coach and reluctant guardian for her late sister’s child, while simultaneously juggling her estranged son, financial instability, and the development of a young boxing prodigy named Kordell (Jharrel Jerome). 

And somehow, despite all that, she is entirely herself - sharp, impatient, funny, and slightly incredulous about everyone around her, and tway she delivers lines, with a mix of charm, menace, and exasperation, keeps you engaged enough even when the plot doesn't. 

She huffs at poorly timed life choices, grumbles about bureaucracy, and commands respect in every frame she inhabits, and Sykes makes Cheryl interesting, even when the story doesn’t, and where the script overestimates her alone, and there are stretches where it feels like she’s holding up a collapsing building with sheer willpower.

The narrative is a juggling act, and it drops more balls than it catches, too.

Cheryl is broke, trying to keep her late sister’s child safe, coaching Kordell, and trying to patch things with her estranged son, Keith, and each crisis could be interesting on its own, but together, they create constant whiplash - one scene has you worrying about her rent, the next we’re in a custody hearing that disappears for forty minutes before reappearing with sudden urgency.

Even the boxing sequences struggle to find rhythm, as while Kordell has confidence, charisma, and a natural energy, and Keith’s rivalry with him is framed inconsistently, where at first, they’re evenly matched, and then suddenly, Kordell is unbeatable and Keith is the eternal underdog, with no explanation - you find yourself mentally filling in gaps the movie ignored.

The tone is also uneven in ways that often pulls you out of the story, as the movie can’t decide if it wants to be a sports drama, a family melodrama, or a character study, and the tension between those ambitions is apparent in every scene - training montages overlap with financial crises, emotional confrontations coexist with mundane administrative concerns, Cheryl is constantly juggling competing crises, and the film seems determined to hit every dramatic beat simultaneously. 

Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s all too exhausting, and I occasionally laughed at the absurdity of the pacing rather than the content itself.

The Low-Budget Ring

The production leans on minimalism, where the arenas feel small, crowds thin, and fight choreography competent but uninspired, and where the cinematography is functional but unremarkable.

Tthe editing does try to inject excitement but often sacrifices clarity, and I noticed long shots intended to feel cinematic that instead exposed the limited scale of the gym and made me aware of the movie’s budget.

We do get some glimpses of precision though, especially when the camera lingers on Sykes’ face in quieter moments, capturing her exasperation and authority, and these moments, rare as they are, hint at a movie that could have been sharper if the production had leaned into intimacy over spectacle. 

When the style falters, the substance - Sykes’ performance - has to do twice the work, and she does it.

The Underdog Narrative

The title Undercard nods to the minor battles happening beneath the spotlight, the uncelebrated struggles of people fighting their own wars, and to be fair, the concept is solid, but the execution is uneven, with tropes abound -  training montages, last-minute realizations, emotional confrontations.

It's a film that tries to juggle weighty themes - redemption, responsibility, familial love - but the tonal whiplash keeps the emotional stakes from landing - the ambition is clear, the cohesion is not.

Queer Subtext

While the script doesn't explicitly focus on Cheryl's sexuality as a "plot point," her presence as a masculine-of-center woman in the hyper-masculine, often homophobic world of boxing gyms is seen in its nonchalance, with a quiet loneliness to Cheryl, and her queerness is baked into her resilience, and Sykes plays that "butch authority" with a certain groundedness that feels fairly authentic.

Ending Explained

The Final Bout: Cheryl is forced to choose between her protégé, Kordell, and her biological son, where the fight sequence is supposed to be climactic, but the emotional resolution lands unevenly.

The Reconciliation: Keith goes from rejecting Cheryl to accepting her within minutes, and the pacing is absurd, and I laughed - not because it was funny, but because it’s impossible to parse emotionally.

The Custody Win: The custody resolution appears only when the story demands it, and feels conveniently timed.

The Resolution: Cheryl finds a sense of peace, but financial problems remain, and the film implies respect in the ring is worth more than rent, which is amusing and frustrating in equal measure.

Undercard FAQ

Is Wanda Sykes actually boxing in the movie?

No. She’s the coach, as she does pad-work and drills but doesn’t enter the ring for a professional match.

Where was Undercard filmed?

Mostly in Newark, New Jersey.

Is this a comedy?

Not really. Sykes’ wit is present, but the script is a straight drama. 

Undercard Trailer

Also read my Montreal, Ma Belle Review, I Saw The TV Glow Review, and The Chronology of Water Review.