‘Unstoppable’ Review – A Surprisingly Expansive Take On Anthony Robles’s Remarkable Career [TIFF 2024]

There are few sports stories more inspiring than Anthony Robles’s.

A congenital leg amputee, Robles overcame the odds of his disability and a home life marred by domestic violence to become an NCAA wrestling champion. His story of tenacious will and unwavering perseverance is the stuff that Hollywood executives dream of, the kind of rousing tale that has shaped a not-insignificant subsection of American cinema for generations.

It is also the kind of story that Hollywood can get egregiously wrong. Even with the best of intentions, stories about people with disabilities run the risk of the disability being the predominant character trait and plot point, minimizing the individual’s complex inner life into a series of well-meaning but condescending platitudes. It reflects the film industry’s ongoing challenges with minority representation, where mere existence is often the beginning and end of depiction.

Unstoppable is an attempt at getting representation right. The film follows athlete Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome), who seeks to take his wrestling career from high school to the college big leagues. He receives a full-ride scholarship offer from Drexel University, but his attention is aimed higher at Iowa, the home of the country’s top wrestlers. His college plans are also complicated by a volatile home life, where he and his mother, Judy (Jennifer Lopez), try to keep the peace amidst financial struggles and an abusive father, Rick (Bobby Cannavale). Anthony ends up attending Arizona State University to help provide for his family, joining the wrestling team as a walk-on who must fight through the first semester to stay on the team. Anthony’s trials don’t end there, with the film following his four-year journey to the 2011 NCAA championship match and the physical, psychological, and financial challenges.

What’s most remarkable about this interpretation of an inspiring tale is its approach. It would be easy, to the point of cliché, for Unstoppable to weave its story exclusively around Robles’s disability. Surprisingly, the film broadens its narrative scope beyond highlighting how Robles is physically different from his teammates and competition. While several scenes depict his physical challenges and triumphs, the most powerful of which shows him navigating a steep hiking trail on crutches, the film also explores the other dynamics that affect Robles’s athleticism. His volatile home life plays a large part, and we see how his emotionally abusive stepfather negatively affects his mental state during a critical match. 

Financial woes also affect Robles’s choices on and off the mat. Judy is our conduit into that struggle, fighting a predatory lender after the family home is nearly foreclosed on. In a way, Unstoppable is also Judy’s story, as we see her struggle and evolve in response to her financial and domestic challenges. We see more than one might expect, from her visiting blood drives to raise money to her researching the subprime mortgage market. Director William Goldenberg does a great job structuring those moments alongside the practicalities of Anthony’s journey. Rather than being distractions or superfluous, those pieces of Robles’s story only help reinforce the extraordinary nature of his story. He feels less like an avatar and more like a fully fleshed-out person, and our connection to him makes his feats on the wrestling mat even more impressive. 

Of course, Unstoppable wouldn’t be a sports film without some sports action sequences, and it delivers them in spades. Goldenberg captures Robles’s time on the mat with frenetic but digestible energy, which is impressive considering that the real Anthony Robles served as Jhareel Jerome’s stunt double. Brett M. Reed does a great job cutting back and forth between Jerome and Robles without losing track of the athletes on the mat, keeping the scenes from feeling disjointed or awkward. Every slam, twist, and grunt is visceral without being overwhelming or off-putting. It is an assault on the senses, but it’s worth it. Each match, from Robles’s high school championship to his NCAA championship match, is deeply satisfying, earning every fist-pumping cheer and heartbreaking sigh that those scenes are engineered to evoke.

The film’s performances also reflect that winning spirit. Jharrel Jerome is uniformly terrific, capturing, in his physicality, the strain and perseverance required in every aspect of Robles’s life. He’s even better in the film’s dramatic moments, where he lets drops of vulnerability slip through his steely, determined gaze. (It’s not hyperbole; Jerome has mastered and evolved the stoic teardrop that secured Denzel Washington’s first Oscar for Glory.) It helps that he has sturdy supporting players to react to. Jennifer Lopez casts aside her movie star aura as Judy and hits powerful notes by leaning into the character’s wavering self-confidence. Bobby Cannavale, playing Judy’s cruel and dismissive husband, teases out just enough of his natural charisma to convey why she would fall for him in the first place. Don Cheadle and Michael Peña also give strong performances as de facto father figures to Robles, emphasizing straight-shooter toughness and genuine empathy.

Unstoppable starts and ends with references to a beloved sports film: Rocky. It’s apropos, as the film embraces the film’s best highlights. Like Rocky Balboa, Anthony Robles on the screen feels like someone much more than his circumstances and perceived limitations. The impact feels unique even if the film leans heavily on sports film conventions. If anything, it sets up Anthony Robles to inspire future audiences as Rocky inspired him. It would be an extraordinary path forward in the realm of meaningful representation.

Unstoppable held its World Premiere as part of the Gala Presentations section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will debut exclusively in select theaters on December 6, 2024, courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. The film will premiere on Prime Video on January 16, 2025. 

Director: William Goldenberg

Writers: Eric Champnella, Alex Harris, John Hindman

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 123m