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Films centered on athletics continue to find critical and commercial success due to their ability to touch the hearts of even those who've never scored a point in sports before in their lives. Just as a newcomer to football can attend their first live game and find it exhilarating, anyone can tune into, say, a wrestling film and quickly relate to its universal themes of suffering and perseverance. Nike Athlete Anthony Robles' acclaimed new biopic Unstoppable is dropping on Prime Video soon and chronicles the NCAA champion wrestler's rise to glory amid harrowing challenges, including his broken family's financial hardships and — maybe you've heard this one — the fact that Robles was born with only one leg.

MovieWeb recently had the chance to speak with Robles, now a motivational speaker and published author, who is portrayed with a certain ferocity and grace by Emmy-winning actor Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight). Robles opened up...

The NCAA wrestling champion of a certain weight class in 2011 is a remarkable individual, and not just because he was born with one leg. Anthony Robles journeyed a tough road to glory and has continued to inspire budding athletes and dreamers in general in the years following his athletic dominance era, going on to become a published author, motivational speaker, and official Nike Athlete. And now, his acclaimed wrestling biopic is about to drop on Prime Video, adapted from Robles' engrossing autobiography, Unstoppable.

Award-winning actor Jharrel Jerome portrays Robles with a certain tenacity that is sure to continue the revival of the sports genre we saw in 2024 (with The Fire Inside and Day of the Fight). MovieWeb recently caught up with the rising star to learn more about what it took to tackle such a fierce and unique role. "When I got the part, I saw a YouTube video of Anthony,...

This review was originally published on September 9, 2024, as a part of our Toronto International Film Festival coverage.

It’s been a minute since a sports drama has made me teary, but Unstoppable is powerful storytelling that elicits an emotional response. Directed by William Goldenberg from a screenplay by Eric Champnella, John Hindman, and Alex Harris, Unstoppable is based on the true story of Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome), who, with only one leg, won the national wrestling championship in 2011. The sports drama is deeply moving, not only because of Robles’ phenomenal accomplishments, but his mother Judy’s (Jennifer Lopez), as well. It’s the kind of movie that’s simultaneously a feel-good tear-jerker that’s deeply personal in the themes it tackles.

Despite being born with one leg, Anthony Robles overcomes significant challenges both at home and in the competitive world of wrestling. His determination and relentless drive lead him to...

The modest aims of director William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, are evident from the start. The film is an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s 1954 two-act play of the same name, which the author adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. And both Wouk’s play and Friedkin’s film jettison the book’s maritime actions to focus solely on the military tribunal that results from it.

That means that nearly the entire film takes place within a small hearing room where military judges hear arguments for and against Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), who faces both discharge and imprisonment for usurping the command of Lt. Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) during a storm. Maryk and a handful shipmates argue that Queeg lost control of his senses and had to be displaced, but the burden of proof for upending the military’s fiercely maintained chain...

Updated with latest: The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie Comandante, an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.

Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.

Adagio

Section: Competition

Director: Stefano Sollima

Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, William Friedkin's final movie, has been picked up by Paramount Plus for international distribution. The film will release on Showtime in the U.S. The film is a legal drama starring Jason Clarke and Kiefer Sutherland based on a 1953 play by Herman Wouk, following a naval officer on trial for leading a mutiny aboard a ship. The movie features a notable cast and marks a posthumous release for Friedkin, Wouk, and Lance Reddick.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, the final movie from late Exorcist director William Friedkin, has found a streaming home. Friedkin, who passed away on August 7, is best known for The Exorcist, but has also directed other hits like The French Connection, Rules of Engagement, and To Live and Die In L.A., among many others. After 2017's The Devil and Father Amorth, Friedkin's final movie is a legal drama based on a play by Herman Wouk.

Exclusive: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial has rounded out its cast with Monica Raymund (Hightown), Lance Reddick (Bosch), Griffin Dunne (This Is Us), Elizabeth Anweis (Batwoman), Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), Francois Battiste (Ten Days in the Valley), and Gabe Kessler (Hightown). They join previously announced leads Keifer Sutherland, Jake Lacy, and Jason Clarke.

Raymund will portray Challee, a Lieutenant with a sharp legal mind and eye for detail who serves as the prosecuting attorney during the court-martial, doing their best to argue that Commander Queeg was wrongfully relieved of his duties.

Reddick portrays Captain Blakely, chief judge of the court-martial. Blakely maintains an even tone, and a commanding presence over the courtroom; Dunne plays Dr. Bird, a lieutenant and member of the psychiatric staff for the Naval Hospital. A person of high intellect, he is more of a new-age psychiatrist than a military-looking psychiatrist.

Anweis plays Dr. Lundeen, the head of psychiatry at the U.