Culture Representation: Taking place from 2006 to 2011, mostly in Arizona, the dramatic film “Unstopabble” (a biopic of disabled champion wrestler Anthony Robles) features a predominantly Latin and black cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Anthony Robles goes from being a champion wrestler in high school to having the odds stacked against him when he experiences rejections and tougher competition in college-level wrestling.
Culture Audience: “Unstoppable” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, wrestling movies, and biopics about people who overcome major challenges.
Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez in “Unstoppable” (Photo by Ana Carballosa/Amazon Content Services)
“Unstoppable” tells the unique and inspiring story of disabled champion wrestler Anthony Robles, but this biopic is bogged down by formulaic writing and directing. Good performances from the cast members are the movie’s saving graces. It’s not a bad movie, but the quality of the filmmaking isn’t quite up to the level of “award-worthy” that the filmmakers clearly intended. “Unstoppable” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, such as AFI Fest and the Urbanworld Film Festival.
Directed by William Goldenberg, “Unstoppable” was written by Eric Champnella, Alex Harris and John Hindman. The screenplay is adapted from the 2013 memoir “From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion,” written by Robles and Austin Murphy. The book’s title was changed to “Unstoppable: From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion” because of this movie, whose producers include Robles and Ben Affleck. For the purposes of this review, the real Anthony Robles (who was born in 1988) will be referred to as Robles, while the Anthony Robles character in the movie will be referred to as Anthony.
“Unstoppable” (which takes place from 2006 to 2011) begins by showing Anthony (played Jharrel Jerome) in his senior year at Mesa High School in Mesa, Arizona. Anthony (who is humble but determined) was born without a right leg, for unknown reasons. It hasn’t stopped him from being a national champion wrestler while he’s a senior in high school.
This type of accomplishment would automatically lead to many college scholarship offerings for non-disabled wrestlers. However, the only university to offer Anthony a scholarship is Drexel University in Philadelphia, which has a lower-level wrestling program that hasn’t resulted in any national champions. Several people in Anthony’s life, including his cranky and aggressive stepfather Rick Robles (played by Bobby Cannavale), advise Anthony to take Drexel’s scholarship offer.
Anthony’s biological father is not seen in the movie and was not involved in raising Anthony. Anthony’s loyal and spirited mother Judy Robles (played by Jennifer Lopez) is Anthony’s biggest fan. Judy and Rick (who married Judy when Anthony was a pre-teen) have four biological children together: son Nicholas (played by Noen Perez), son Andrew (played by Carlos Solorzano), daughter Ronnie (played by Julianna Gamiz), and son Joshua (played by Elijah James), nicknamed Bo. All four of Anthony’s half-siblings look up to him with great admiration.
Rick, who works as a prison guard, is somewhat of a tyrant who thinks his way is the only correct way to do things. It’s later revealed that Rick is physically abusive to Judy. Rick and Judy both think that Anthony should get a college education, but Rick discourages Anthony’s dream to become a professional wrestler after college. Anthony’s first-choice university is the University of Iowa, which has a stellar track record of winning national wrestling competitions. However, the University of Iowa hasn’t shown any interest in Anthony.
Through a series of circumstances that won’t be revealed in this review, Anthony has no choice but to enroll at Arizona State University, which is in Tempe, Arizona, about seven miles west of Mesa. One of the reasons why Anthony becomes an Arizona State University student has to do with Anthony feeling obligated to stay close to home so he can help his family out financially. He has a part-time job as an airplane cleaner at an airport.
Anthony doesn’t make it onto the Arizona State University wrestling team easily. The team’s coach Shawn Charles (played by Don Cheadle) refuses to give Anthony special treatment because of Anthony’s missing leg. Anthony doesn’t want special treatment or pity and goes through various obstacles to make it onto the team. Along the way, Anthony gets occasional advice from Bobby Williams (played by Michael Peña), who was Anthony’s wrestling coach at Mesa High School.
The Robles family members go through some tough times, including the possibility of losing their home due to financial problems. Meanwhile, Anthony is determined to win a national wrestling championship as a student at Arizona State University. He has a predictable showdown with Matt McDonough (played by Johnni DiJulius), the star champion wrestler from the University of Iowa, one of the schools that rejected Anthony. (None of this is spoiler information, since it’s all shown in the “Unstoppable” trailer.)
“Unstoppable” follows many of the same beats as other sports movies about underdog athletes. Jerome, Lopez and Cannavale give the movie’s best performances, with Jerome being an obvious standout as the central character. (Robles was Jerome’s wrestling stand-in for many of the wrestling scenes.) To its credit, “Unstoppable” is exactly what it appears to be: a feel-good movie about overcoming seemingly impossible odds. It’s too bad that this movie about a real-life athlete who took big risks ultimately has filmmaking that plays it too safe and doesn’t offer anything innovative.
Amazon MGM Studios will release “Unstoppable” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024. Prime Video will premiere the movie on January 16, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area, the comedy/drama film “Goodrich” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A workaholic gallery owner, whose longtime business is on the verge of failing, has to raise his 9-year-old twins on his own while his estranged wife is in rehab and his 36-year-old daughter from a previous marriage is about to give birth to her first child.
Culture Audience: “Goodrich” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted comedies/dramas about families going through emotionally difficult transitions.
Mila Kunis and Michael Keaton in “Goodrich” (Photo courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
“Goodrich” is a sprawling, uneven comedy/drama about a workaholic art gallery owner with turmoil in his personal life and professional life. The cast members’ believable performances improve a story that sometimes wanders too much. “Goodrich” portrays adult issues in realistic ways. But to its detriment, the movie has some scenes that don’t serve much purpose except being filler.
Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, “Goodrich” is the type of movie that typically doesn’t get a theatrical release and is more likely to be a direct-to-video release or an original movie from a streaming service. That’s because it’s becoming increasingly uncommon for U.S.-based live-action movies about family problems to get a theatrical release unless the focus of the movie is on the children in the family. It’s even more uncommon for the protagonist to be an elderly father who’s raising pre-teen children on his own.
“Goodrich” (which was filmed on location in the Los Angeles area) takes place over a three-month period, from September to December. The story is told from the perspective of protagonist Andy Goodrich (played by Michael Keaton), the owner of Goodrich Gallery, a boutique art gallery in Los Angeles that has been in business for about 28 years. Andy, who is his early 70s, is so preoccupied with his work, he tends to not notice things that are going on in his immediate family. Throughout the movie, it’s implied that his workaholic ways were the main reason why his first marriage ended in divorce.
Andy thinks he’s a good guy, but there are huge indications that he’s self-absorbed and has made his job the top priority in his life for a very long time. The movie’s opening scene shows Andy getting a phone call late at night when he’s at home. The call is from his second and current wife Naomi Parsons (played by Laura Benanti), who announces that she has checked into a 90-day rehab program at a recovery center called Journeys because of her addictions to alcohol and pills. (Naomi isn’t seen in the movie until the last 15 minutes.)
Andy is shocked because he wasn’t even aware that Naomi has these addictions. He tells her that he just thought that she sometimes drank too much alcohol. Naomi is annoyed but not surprised. “Didn’t you notice that I didn’t come home?” Naomi asks Andy, who admits that he hadn’t really noticed. Naomi then drops another bombshell on Andy when she announces to him: “I’m leaving you.”
Naomi and Andy are parents to 9-year-old twins: daughter Billie (played by Vivien Lyra Blair) and son Mose (played by Jacob Kopera), who don’t know that Naomi is in rehab. Billie is the more talkative and more intuitive twin. She’s also more emotionally mature than her brother.
Andy doesn’t know how to handle the sudden responsibility of being the primary caregiver parent for the twins. And he doesn’t want to tell them the truth about why they won’t be able to see Naomi for the next 90 days. And so, the next morning, Andy lies by telling Billie and Mose that Naomi has a doctor’s appointment.
Andy has a part-time housekeeper named Tali (played by Noa Fisher), who is helpful, but she’s not really a nanny. Now that Andy is the primary caregiver for the kids, he’s been thrown into a situation where he has no idea what the kids’ daily routines are and what they might need when they’re at school, at home, or elsewhere. Naomi didn’t leave any instructions for him before she checked into rehab.
Still in denial that Naomi is in long-term rehab, Andy drives to Promises, where he is told Naomi gave the rehab center strict orders not to let Andy see her or communicate with her while she’s in rehab. He is shocked and angry but that anger turns into confusion and remorse. Andy continues to lie to Billie and Mose about where Naomi is.
Andy changes his story to say that Naomi is visiting her mother in St. Louis, and he’s not sure when Naomi will come home. The twins are worried but they trust what Andy tells them. Andy doesn’t want the twins to know the truth because he thinks it would be too traumatic for Billie and Mose. But the reality is that Andy doesn’t want to completely face the truth himself, partly because of the guilt and shame he feels over the whole situation.
Later in the movie, it’s shown that Andy’s voice mail messages to Naomi go unreturned. The letters he sends to Naomi are sent back as “return to sender” letters. Andy finds out that Naomi has called Billie and Mose and told the same lie about visiting her mother in St. Louis, in order to keep up the charade. Even after all of these signs that Naomi wants to end the marriage, Andy still thinks that Naomi will change her mind when she’s out of rehab.
Meanwhile, Andy’s eldest child is his 36-year-old daughter Grace (played by Mila Kunis), who is going through a very different type of parental issue: In the beginning of the movie, Grace is about seven months pregnant with her first child. Grace is a senior entertainment writer at an unnamed media outlet. She’s married to mild-mannered Pete (played by Danny Deferrari), a doctor who is an ear/nose/throat specialist. Pete and Grace both do not want to know the gender of their unborn child until the baby is born.
Grace and Pete are first seen during an appointment with Grace’s obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Verma (played by Poorna Jagannathan), who talks about some dietary concerns that Grace is having. Before Dr. Verma enters the exam room, Grace confides in Pete (who is a very supportive and loving husband) that she doesn’t know why she feels she might get fired if she asks her female boss to go on extended maternity leave. Grace is struggling with deciding if she wants to quit her job to become a full-time homemaker.
Andy’s relationship with Grace has had its share of ups and downs. He was a mostly absentee parent to Grace after he got divorced from Grace’s mother Ann (played by Andie MacDowell), who is currently director of the Walton Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Ann and Andy were married for 14 years. All of this information about Andy’s previous marriage isn’t revealed until the movie is halfway over.
Now that Andy is about to become a grandfather, he reconnected with Grace, who is open to being friendly with Andy, but she’s still a little bit wary of him because she has abandonment issues. Grace dislikes how Andy doesn’t seem to approve of Pete because Andy thinks Pete is nerdy. Grace is also uncomfortable with how Andy sometimes asks her to babysit Billie and Mose on short notice.
Andy is not only stressed-out over the problems in his personal life, but he’s also overwhelmed and struggling with his career. Andy and his business partner Sy (played by Kevin Pollak) are in a lot of debt. In order to reduce costs, they’ve had to decide whether to relocate to a gallery space that has lower rent or decrease the seller asking rate for their artists. Andy adamantly refuses to lower the rates for their artists.
But relocating to a place with lower rent won’t solve Goodrich Gallery’s financial problems. In a meeting with the gallery’s accountant Greg (played by Andrew Leeds), Greg warns Andy and Sy that unless they get a big increase in revenue, the gallery will go out of business in three months. Andy is certain that a talented young artist named Dev (who’s never seen in the movie), whose recent exhibit at the gallery was a flop, could be still be their last big chance of success. Sy isn’t entirely convinced.
And then, Andy finds out that a critically acclaimed, elderly artist named Theresa Thompson has died. Theresa’s artwork is considered hot property, so Andy thinks if Goodrich Gallery can get the rights to exhibit her work, it could be an even bigger financial boost that could help Goodrich Gallery stay in business. Andy has to convince Theresa’s elusive heir/daughter Lola Thompson (played by Carmen Ejogo), who is getting many other offers from bigger galleries. Andy goes to unusual lengths to track down Lola (a 50-year-old single mother) so that he can make his pitch to her in person.
“Goodrich” also has a subplot about Andy becoming friendly with a single father named Terry Koch (played by Michael Urie), whose son Alexander, nicknamed Alex (played by Carlos Solórzano), is a schoolmate friend of Billie and Mose. Terry is gay and divorced from Alex’s other father, who abandoned the family. Andy and Terry meet by chance when Billie, Mose and Alex are late to school on the same day. Because Alex has epilepsy, Alex is excused for his tardiness, while Billie and Mose are not excused.
Andy and Terry strike up a conversation outside the school building after the kids have gone to their classrooms. Terry is a somewhat neurotic motormouth who immediately tells Andy about how he came a single father. Terry also mentions that he’s an actor who has a day job in graphic design. It’s during this conversation that Andy opens up about Naomi and how Andy is also having difficulty adjusting to raising his kids on his own until Naomi figures out what she wants to do after she gets out of rehab.
“Goodrich” sort of ambles along to show how Andy divides his time between his work and his personal life. He prides himself on being macho and being someone who does not cry easily. Andy is worried about losing his business, but he has a certain amount of pride in not letting this worry show. He’s also convinced he can come up with an idea to save the business.
Andy has a restless energy that doesn’t always gel with the patience required to suddenly take care of two 9-year-old kids and still find time to focus on work and pay attention to Grace. He sometimes forgets appointments and doesn’t know how to do things, such as make lunch for Billie and Mose to bring to school. Andy doesn’t know (until Billie tells him) that the private school where his children are students does not serve lunch unless it’s on special occasions.
During the parts of the movie that tend to ramble, viewers might wonder, “Where is this story going? Do we really need to see Andy in yet another scene where he’s rushing somewhere because he’s running late in picking up his kids or taking his kids somewhere?” To its credit, the tone of “Goodrich” seems to be a “take life as it comes” story, instead of hitting certain formulaic beats that many other movies would have with this subject matter of a man who finds himself suddenly having to raise underage kids on his own.
The strongest and best-acted parts of “Goodrich” have to do with the tensions that can occur when a parent has a distant relationship with offspring from a previous marriage and tries to make up for it with offspring from a current marriage. It can cause resentment and jealousy from the offspring from the previous marriage who didn’t get the parent’s attention that the offspring from the current marriage is getting. Grace sees up close that Andy is a very different father to Billie and Mose than the father he was when Grace was an underage child.
Near the end of the movie, there’s a well-written, emotionally explosive scene between Grace and Andy where she unleashes just how she feels about missing out on the time and attention that Andy now has for Billie and Mose. It’s in this scene that Andy truly begins to understand the damage caused by being absent for most of Grace’s childhood. It’s Kunis’ best scene in the movie, which doesn’t show her as often as the marketing materials for “Goodrich” would suggest.
Keaton does a very good job of portraying the complicated and ambitious Andy, who slowly begins to learn how to have a work/life balance. Andy says he loves Naomi and wants to keep their family intact. However, the movie shows that Andy has unresolved issues that he has not confronted yet, such as his tendency to be in denial about serious problems that affect him and his family. For example, Grace wasn’t shocked that Naomi had to go to rehab, but Andy was shocked.
“Goodrich” doesn’t show Andy in any counseling for people who have loved ones with addictions, but he does seek solace in another way by communing with a group where Grace gets emotional healing. The movie ignores or doesn’t address if Naomi is in a 12-step recovery program, which requires addicts to contact and make amends with loved ones for any problems caused by the addict’s addiction. Andy is made to look like an emotionally absent spouse/parent, but Naomi was surely not a perfect spouse/parent either. “Goodrich” doesn’t go into details about how Naomi’s addictions affected her parenting.
“Goodrich” has solid direction but it seems to take for granted that Andy and Naomi come from a socioeconomic class where Naomi can afford to go to an upscale rehab recovery center. Sure, Andy’s business has financial debt, but it’s not so bad that he has to declare bankruptcy and/or lose the family home. “Goodrich” tends to have a superficial/”barely there” examination of how addiction can affect a family. But “Goodrich” delivers competently on what the movie is about: an upper-middle-class, elderly man coming to terms with the type of parent he wants to be to his adult child and his two underage children.
Ketchup Entertainment released “Goodrich” in U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.
Culture Representation: Taking place in California, the comedy film “Holiday in the Vineyards” features a racially diverse cast of characters (white, Latino and African American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An irresponsible playboy goes undercover to get confidential business information for his wine mogul mother, but he falls for the woman whom he has deceived to get this information.
Culture Audience: “Holiday in the Vineyards” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching inoffensive and undemanding romantic comedies.
Omar Gooding in “Holiday in the Vineyards” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
“Holiday in the Vineyards” is pleasant and predictable, but not in a way that’s cloying or irritating. Unlike many romantic comedies of its kind, everything in the story is believable. Some parts are dull and uneven, but the movie is watchable overall. It’s the type of film where most viewers will know how the movie ends before the movie begins, but the movie’s characters will keep viewers interested.
Directed by Alex Ranarivelo, “Holiday in the Vineyards” is the cinematic equivalent of a low-priced romance novel that is an easy way to pass the time. “Holiday in the Vineyards” (written by Cecilia Franco and David Zanardi) has an easygoing screenplay that follows a familiar formula of an irresponsible man who might be redeemed by the love of a good woman. It’s also one of those romantic comedies that involves someone telling a big lie to potential love interest, so there romance could be ruined if the deceived person finds out about the lie.
“Holiday in the Vineyards” (formerly titled “A Wine Country Christmas”) begins by showing hard-partying playboy Carter Baldwyn (played by Josh Swickard) waking up on a golf course, after being passed out drunk. Carter is very hung over and is running late for a lunch meeting with his widowed mother Margo Baldwyn (played by Eileen Davidson), who is very bossy and judgmental. She is the owner of the California-based family business called Baldwyn Wines, which is a financially successful company that sells low-quality wine.
Margo has become accustomed to Carter being flaky, but she’s losing her patience with him. Margo’s father-in-law George Baldwyn (who is deceased) founded Baldwyn Wines. She wants to retire in the near future but is determined to keep the business in the family. And so, Margo expects Carter (who is an only child) to eventually take over the company.
However, Margo has serious doubts that Carter is capable of being the leader of anything. He has a history of being flaky and selfish. He was engaged to a woman named Emma Dixon (played by Annika Noelle), who had Margo’s approval. However, Carter called off the wedding and callously told Emma by text that he decided to break up with her.
While Margo waits for Carter to show up for the lunch meeting, Margo is rude to a waiter who serves her some Baldwin win at this lunch meeting. She spits out the wine and barks at the waiter: “We sell this wine! We don’t drink it!” She then orders the waiter to serve her the high-quality wine that she thinks she deserves.
During the meeting between Margo and Carter, she tells him that she wants to go to the rural town of Los Santos, where she wants to buy a property in foreclosure called Huckabee Vineyard Estate. Margo has heard that there’s a rival company that might be bidding on ths property. Carter has been given the task of going undercover at Los Santos to try to find out any insider information to help Margo have the upper hand in closing this deal.
Margo orders Carter to “blend in” when he’s in Los Santos. And that means Carter can’t call attention to himself as the spoiled and wealthy heir of Baldwyn Wines. Through a series of circumstances, Carter makes an impromptu decision to pretend that he’s a carpenter. It’s a lie that he tells to several people in Los Santos, including the main target of his undercover investigation: Valentina Espinoza (played by Sol Rodríguez), the real-estate agent that is representing Huckabee Vineyard Estate in the sale.
Valentina is a lonely and grieving young widow, whose husband Chris died of cancer. The movie doesn’t say how long he’s been dead, but it appears to be less than two years. Valentina and Chris’ two sons are Fernando (played by Julian Rangel ), who’s about 10 or 11 years old, and Santiago, nicknamed Santi (played by Carlos Solórzano), who’s about 7 or 8 years old. Valentina gets help from her best friend Cindy (played by Carly Jibson), who is a nurse, in taking care of the children.
It just so happens that Valentina has a guest house that is dire need of a cleanup and renovation. Chris and Valentina have their “meet cute” moment (he crashes a private tour that she’s giving of Huckabee Vineyard Estate), he eagerly accepts Valentina’s offer for him to stay in the guest house. His glee quickly turns to dismay when Valentina says he can stay there for free on one condition: He has to renovate the guest house with supplies, which she says shouldn’t be a problem for Chris because he told her that he’s a carpenter.
Valentina says she will pay for all of the supplies and sends Chris goes to a local store called Walker Hardware. Mo Walker (played by Omar Gooding), the store’s friendly and helpful owner, quickly figures out that Chris has lied to Valentina about being a carpenter. Omar thinks that Chris told this lie because Chris wants to date Valentina. Chris denies that he hs a romantic interest in Valentina, but we all know where this story is going. The movie shows as soon as Carter arrives in Los Santos that the town is having an upcoming event on December 23 called the Holiday Garagiste and Artisanal Wine Festival.
“Holiday in the Vineyards” has a lot of the expected occurrences in a “bad boy/good girl” romance formula, where a “bad boy” has to do some soul-searching about his part harmful actions, in order become a better person who’s “worthy” of the love of the “good girl.” Carter goes from someone who’s a commitment-phobic bachelor who can’t picture himself spending too much time taking care of kids to someone who is surprised at how good he is with Valentina’s children and how much he likes the small-town life of Los Santos.
Meanwhile, Valentina also has to rethink how much her grief is holding her back from trying to find happiness and romantic love again. “Holiday in the Vineyards” realistically shows the hesitancy of a widowed person who is afraid and reluctant to get back into the dating scenes. As attractive and accomplished as Valentina is, she not immune from insecurities and sadness. Rodríguez’s portrayal of Valentina is some of the best acting in the movie.
The “sidekick” characters of Cindy and Mo bring most of the movie’s comedy in ways that are often stereotypical, with some of their jokes landing better than other jokes. Cindy is a jokester and a flirtatious bachelorette who is looking for love. And you can almost do a countdown to the scene where Cindy meets Mo, who is also single, and predict how she’s going to react to him.
Mo is an amateur winemaker who makes wine out of his garage, but his wine needs a lot of improvement, to put it nicely. A running joke in the movie is that Mo often asks Carter for Carter’s opinion on Mo’s wine. Every time Carter drinks Mo’s wine, Carter gags and/or spits out the wine.
“Holiday in the Vineyards” doesn’t have any big surprises. But thankfully, there are no over-the-top and ridiculous scenes of people declaring they’ve fallen in love with each other and want to spend the rest of their lives with a love interest whom they’ve known for less than a week. Any transformation that Carter might go through is well-earned and doesn’t looked forced. The romance in the story, just like this movie, is sweet and has enough charm to keep most viewers interested.
Netflix premiered “Holiday in the Vineyards” on December 13, 2023.
