‘Unstoppable’ – Another Solid Entry in the Pantheon of Biographical Sports Drama

‘Unstoppable’ – Another Solid Entry in the Pantheon of Biographical Sports Drama

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Several times I’ve tried explaining why I love sports media even though my general sentiment towards sports generally speaking is “it’s alright.” I suppose it really just comes down to the fact that sports media makes it really easy to follow and subsequently get invested in a specific narrative. You have an easy entry point, you have a very curated look at their training and their life, and you get a significantly more cinematic vantage for all of the major competitions. 

So of course, when Prime announced that they were streaming a biographical sports drama about Anthony Robles, a wrestler who was born without a leg, I knew I was going to watch it and more likely enjoy it. And I can say that my expectations were met and even, at moments, exceeded.

In its opening scene, Unstoppable does something really clever and immediately starts with Anthony (Jharrel Jerome) at the high school state championships. His coach Bobby Williams (Michael Peña) telling him to focus on the match at hand and not the recruiters for University of Iowa watching the match. And Anthony, even missing a leg, manages to secure the win. Goldenberg knows how to generate hype. The wrestling match is easy to follow even as someone who hasn’t watched the sport in a decade or change, and Anthony’s skill is on display. It’s the type of match that would capstone a shonen arc, and it’s opening the movie.

And even as Anthony takes his victory lap, this victory seemingly has an asterisks. He only manages to get one scholarship off from Drexel University that would take him out of state from his mom and half-siblings (something his step-father is more than okay with). The University of Iowa, the best school for collegiate wrestling, has absolutely no interest in him at all. While he has proven himself, it’s still not quite enough, and Anthony eventually decides to walk on to Arizona State to stay close to his family even though Coach Shawn Charles (Don Cheadle) tells him that it would be a difficult and arduous path to get on the team.

Unstoppable
Image via The New York Times

What follows in Unstoppable is a deft sports drama that spans about four years in two hours. All of the classic sports tropes about the underdog having to work harder are in play, and it just works out. And then it has all of the classic feel good biographical tropes as well. This is not a knock on the movie. The movie executes on this perennial story beats exceedingly well balancing Anthony’s training and dedication as an athlete and his tumultuous home life. Bobby Cannavale plays Rich Robles as a very familiar abusive step-father with plenty of venom and vitriol, and Jennifer Lopez plays Judy Robles, a loving mother who managed to raise an inspiring son in spite of various tribulations. You’ve heard all of this before I’m certain. It’s still worth watching.

Jharrell Jerome, whose previous credits that I was familiar with include the super surreal I’m a Virgo and a brief, yet critical voice in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, was a fantastic leading man and absolutely magnetic. He truly sold the physicality of the role (at least from an untrained eye) and the emotional gravitas as well. You could see the grit and determination. You could feel the disappointment at the various setbacks and the elation at that various hard-fought victories. He anchored the movie perfectly, and it certainly helped that he had a great cast to play off of.

My personal favorite interactions were with the coaches. I loved how Michael Peña’s Bobby Williams remained a positive influence and source in Anthony’s life. I loved watching Don Cheadle’s Shawn Charles come to understand and respect Anthony as a person an athlete, also managing to shake up the ice cream zen koan trope and use relevant parables throughout the film. The parts showcasing Anthony’s home life weren’t quite as engaging, but they never overstayed the welcome.

By the time the credits rolled and the montage explaining what happened after to the actual Anthony Robles and Robles family after the events of the movie (it’s a sport drama so you can probably predict how it ends), I was nodding my head in approval. Did it to anything particularly innovative? Not really, but everything it did was solid and as balanced as Anthony Roble on the mat. 

And honestly, if I get my athlete in training and athlete in competition scenes and I can understand why the elements of both are impressive, I’m pretty happy as a sports media fan. If you have Prime, Unstoppable is definitely worth the 2-hour runtime.

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