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‘Unstoppable’ Review: A Fearless Athlete Deserves a Braver Film

By Melanie Fischer | Film | January 21, 2025 |

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Header Image Source: Amazon

Conventional wisdom would tell you that if you want a slam dunk of a movie, a biographical sports drama centering a true-life underdog overcoming adversity and incredible odds is about as close to a guarantee as one can get. In this turbulent, particularly risk-averse era of Hollywood, it’s easy to imagine the series of decisions that lead to Unstoppable, the perfectly OK if depressingly rote dramatization of Anthony Robles’ remarkable path to a NCAA Division I wrestling championship, both getting made and being as terribly bland as it is.

Robles (portrayed by Jharrel Jerome, whose compelling performance is a highlight of the film), was born without a right leg, but as the title of the film indicates, he doesn’t let that stop him from joining his high school wrestling team and excelling. We first meet Anthony concluding his triumphant high school career, hoping one of the college scouts present for his state championship will offer him a full scholarship. Drexel makes a generous offer, but Anthony isn’t especially enthused to the vexation of his supportive but stressed mother Judy (Jennifer Lopez, whose insistence that Jenny from the Block still remembers how common people live only grows less compelling by the decade).

Anthony wants to keep his options open, which the film indicates really means he’s hoping for an offer from Iowa State—although this aspect of the story never feels fully realized, like basically all the subplots here. He does, however, receive a second, far less enthusiastic offer from the nearby Arizona State University. The ASU coach, Shawn Charles (Don Cheadle), warns him that it would be an uphill battle for him to actually make the final cut for the team. However, with trouble brewing at home in the shape of Anthony’s mercurial stepfather Rick (Bobby Cannavale), Anthony ends up committing to ASU to stay close so he can be there for Judy and his passel of younger siblings, none of whom are given any particular definition as individuals. (I couldn’t even tell you how many of them there are, and I just finished watching the movie.)

The issue with Unstoppable, like a depressing number of films and television shows from recent years, is not so much that anything flat-out does not work, per say, so much as the movie on the whole is artistically void. There’s technical polish; whatever mix of SFX, VFX, and performance techniques are being utilized here to replicate Robles’ condition, down to how it would impact his center of gravity and wrestling style, are particularly compelling. But the creative decisions being made, across the board, lack any spark of creativity.

Adapted from Robles’ autobiography of the same name by Eric Champnella, Alex Harris, and John Hindman, Unstoppable charts Anthony’s journey in the most basic and linear way imaginable. In his directorial debut, veteran editor William Goldenberg (who took home an Oscar in 2012 for his editing work on Argo) matches the functional but flat non-energy of the script to a tee. The end result is a biopic that looks sleek and expensive while still feeling like a movie-of-the-week best suited to background viewing.

There’s a curious irony beneath the surface here: a fearful, overfamiliar, paint-by-numbers film about an individual who was bold and audacious and refused to let naysayers limit the scope of his ambitions. Anthony’s extraordinary story is familiar in that it suits the beloved age-old Hollywood mold of underdog sports dramas incredibly well, but to be clear, the story being familiar is not the issue here. There are only so many stories out there, after all, and especially when it comes to feel-good entertainment, the truth of the matter is that we generally do gravitate towards the comfortably familiar, like a pair of cozy slippers. But the main creative challenge for a film like this is figuring out a way to tell a familiar story in a way that still feels fresh and fun; finding a way to add a dash of the unexpected. But Unstoppable, in disappointing contrast to Anthony himself, does not even attempt to rise to the occasion, timidly walking the path most travelled with minimal fanfare. The result is tasteless, inoffensive, occasionally stirring in spite of itself, and all together forgettably fine. Robles’ story and audiences deserve more.

Unstoppable is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.