The Appalachian film scene is brimming with potential and creativity. The natural beauty of the mountain state is a cinematographer’s dream while the stories and mystery buried within the hills is rich with dramatic potential. Films like “Christmas at The Greenbrier” have made a splash on national streaming networks like Fox Nation but Cabell County native James Edward Holley has released “The Good Fight,” a local faith-based film, directly to movie theaters. This is a huge gamble as this puts Holley’s locally produced film directly against the juggernauts of Hollywood and the artistry of the foreign markets.

So how does West Virginia’s very own, “The Good Fight,” stack up against the fiercest competition in Hollywood? To judge Holley’s film directly against such a well-oiled creative machine would be folly but “The Good Fight” certainly puts up a good fight in many of the most important aspects of filmmaking. The Mountain State movie is shot extremely well and the director has a clear understanding of visual mise-en-scène. All the technical aspects of the production are handled with gravitas and a focus on the visual shot. The color palette is diverse, the film is sharp and it simply “looks” like a big-budget production. Wide drone-shots set the establishing sequences properly, and the camera shifts accordingly when the shot relocates to a more intimate area such as the indoors.

Of course, the story of any movie is a driving factor for why people are engaged with the visual artistry on display. That’s where mileage will vary for viewers but for this reviewer, the story was an earnest attempt at signaling a good message. “The Good Fight” centers around Luke O’Connor (portrayed by Huntington native Ashley Stinnett), a married engineer who moonlights as a boxing trainer at a local gym owned by his friend, Big Chief (portrayed by director James Edward Holley.) Luke is plagued by a Sisyphean alcohol-addiction that threatens to ruin his family’s life if he cannot get it under check. In a kindhearted attempt to help, Chief enlists the support of the gym’s business lawyer, Michael Crawford (portrayed by “Smallville” and “Dukes of Hazzard” actor John Schneider) to assist with getting Luke’s life back on track.

The film’s trailer and marketing hype up the sporting and boxing aspects of the film but the narrative is squarely a family-focused character study of a Luke’s battle with his demons. That’s the metaphorical “good fight” but a few good fights would have gone a long way with actualizing the dramatic conflict. Think of a film like “Creed III” where the internal conflict of the characters is visualized on screen; it’s not so much about the action on the screen but the escalating tension between characters as events “get worse and worse.” In “The Good Fight,” the narrative conflict is almost always Luke drinking a bit more and then everyone being fed up with him afterward. There is no escalation of stakes or a natural progression of tension. For instance, the final fight of “The Good Fight” comes from a tournament that feels more like a random epilogue than an actual build up to a climax. The final opponent isn’t even named and has no connection to any of the characters.

There’s a similar issue with the acting where you have some really thoughtful, emotional and earnest performances from half the cast while the other half of the cast feel as if they are actively recalling dialogue in their head. That’s what makes “The Good Fight” a difficult film to gauge. On one hand, it does some stuff so extremely well that you’d be hard pressed not to recommend this film as an example of what West Virginians are capable of when given a capable camera. On the other hand, the film may lack a lot of the dramatic narrative elements that will keep a mass-audience engaged.

There are still showings of James Edward Holley’s “The Good Fight” at Tears Valley Cinema near Hurricane from now till Wednesday, January 24th.