Starring alongside Jennifer Lopez and Bobby Cannavale, Moonlight star Jharrel Jerome plays one-legged wrestling sensation Anthony Robles in Unstoppable – streaming on Prime Video from Jan 16. It’s a tried-and-true entry in the inspirational sports biopic genre that somehow makes old tricks feel new, reports Eliza Janssen.
“At cursory glance, Unstoppable appears as an often-told story: the indomitable spirit of an athlete with a disability. What’s strikingly different and original in Unstoppable is the authority of so many moments of true life accumulating throughout to create a quiet monumentality.”
Are you sold yet? No? Okay, well consider that the above praise doesn’t come from me, but from legendary director Michael Mann, who picked Unstoppable as his favourite film of 2024, and has worked with its director William Goldenberg on films like Heat, Ali and Miami Vice. Previously an editor, Goldenberg makes his directorial debut with this “often-told story”, which looks like a boilerplate Inspiring Sports Biopic. From a distance, that is. With the help of a commanding and empathetic lead performance and the sheer uplifting power of seeing a worthy character’s dreams come true onscreen, Unstoppable is every bit as worthwhile as Mann suggests.
The fascinating true story here is that of Anthony Robles, a collegiate wrestler born with only one leg. There are pros and cons to this, as Anthony (Jharrel Jerome) jokes: “it’s the only sport where a guy can’t run away from me.” Pros: Anthony has a higher centre of gravity, tremendous grip strength from using his crutches, and one less limb for his opponents to grab. Cons: Anthony refuses to be pitied as a charity case, and so must fight for his spot on a prestigious college wrestling team against peers who can run laps, climb stairs, and even step onto the winners’ podium with more ease than he can.
I’m sure you could imagine the major plot pivots of Unstoppable without too much strain, but it’s the familiarity of these moments that build to Mann’s “monumentality”: disappointments that crush, and redemptive spots of sweetness (many featuring Don Cheadle’s verbose wrestling coach) that feel like oxygen. Off the mat, Anthony is also wrestling with a hostile home life, where his angelic mother Judy (J.Lo back to playing Jenny from the Block, in a canny, grounded casting move) is his number one cheerleader, and his embittered cop dad Rich (Bobby Cannavale) tears down his ambitions.
When the tension between these two opposing parental forces simmers over into abuse, Anthony’s called upon to become the man of the house, looking after his mother and siblings while precious time ticks away on his champion dreams. We know how a narrative thread like this concludes in a movie like Unstoppable. What viewers may not be ready for is how new such old tricks can feel, and that’s down to a few elements.
First and foremost, the exemplary Jharrel Jerome—much like his underdog character—can do anything. Bursting onto the scene in Moonlight, he then delivered one of 2019’s best performances in the miniseries When They See Us, the only actor to portray his character as both a teen and an adult: he modulates his characterisation so acutely, you almost fail to recognise him as the same guy across time. Jerome pulls off a similar challenge here, completely selling the film’s impressive special effects and wrestling choreography to the point where you wonder if Goldenberg managed to find some young wrestler with one leg and unbelievable dramatic talent.
His requisite third-act monologue, in which Anthony explains that even earning silver will mean that those around him will feel “a little bit sorry” for him for the rest of his life, is elevated beyond its generic value by Jerome’s fierce pathos: eyes ablaze, jaw set, his physicality between anxious adolescence and the confident winner he knows he can become.
Running almost two hours, Unstoppable perhaps dwells too long on details that most seasoned fans of sports movies will be able to predict. Thankfully, none of it ever feels too polished or sanitised to outweigh the powerful human touch of the truth, and it’s almost impossible to not feel surprised and elated by the climactic final wrestling matches. This isn’t a sport I know an awful lot about—honestly, I’m a bigger fan of WWE-style kayfabe and theatrical silliness, which I got a taste of in 2023’s The Iron Claw.
But Unstoppable isn’t about wrestling, or disability, or winning. Like all sports movies that are worth rooting for, it’s about one person’s universal story, with their amazing body and its talents merely a tool to access the hearts of viewers. I’m stoked that Robles has a fine project like this that bears his name, and that Jerome is leading it. Only thing I could’ve used, really, is a new J.Lo song over the end credits.
