Movie tips: Underdogs
Movies about overcoming obstacles.
The following movies have characters who manage, survive, overcome and even beat the odds.
The Mercy is a true and adventurous story of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in hopes of becoming the first person to sail around the world, alone, without stopping.
Crowhurst had little experience with these kinds of sail trips, but he still managed to be sponsored and set sail. What really eventually happened to him remains a mystery to this day.
IMDb-score: 6.0
Wendy is autistic, and lives in a care home. One day she runs away to have her 500-page Star Trek-manuscript entered into a writing contest in Hollywood.
The film stars Dakota Fanning, Alice Eve, Toni Collette and Patton Oswalt, among others.
IMDB-score: 6.7
Gritt (Gry-Jeanette) goes straight from drama school to Hollywood. 17 years later she returns home. A bad audition and the loss of her appartment turns her life situation desperate. A possibility arise at a theatre, and Gritt seizes it.
"A masterpiece and one of the best Norwegian movies ever made... Gritt is an intense, inventive and hysterically funny film"- Montages
IMDb-score: 6.1
Tapt Barndom (Dalva)
Dalva, aged 12, lives with her father. One night the police storm in and remove her from the home and put her in a youth home. With the help of the people in her new home, Dalva learns how to be a child again.
Tapt barndom (Dalva) is a French drama starring Zelda Samson in a great performance as the young girl.
IMDb-score: 7.3
Ørkenblomsten (The Desert Flower)
Somalian Waris Dirie was circumscized at the age of three, and married off at the age of 13. She later fled from Africa and made a career as a supermodel. Now she is nearing 40 and acts as a UN spokeswoman against circumcision of women. This is her strong story, based on Waris' bestselling autobiography.
IMDb-score: 7.3
The comedy The Peanut Butter Falcon is the story of 22-year-old Zak, who has Downs' syndrom, but dreams of being a professional wrestler. And who is willing to follow his dream no matter what the odds are for success.
The film is a modern retelling of the Huckleberry Finn-story, starring among others Shia Leboeuf and Dakota Johnson. It won several awards, among them the Truly Moving Picture Award at the Heartland Film Festival.
IMDb-score: 7.6
In the early 2000s, in a village in Wales' poorest valleys, bartender Jan Vokes gets the crazy idea that she is going to breed a race horse. With the help of the villagers she fosters her foal and names him Dream Alliance. This inspiring documentary has won several film awards.
Dream Alliance is now in happy retirement.
IMDb-score: 7.3
15-year-old Rocks comes home one day to an empty house and a note from her mother. Rocks and her little brother Emmanuel are left to themselves, and so the hardships begin. Can they manage on their own? How can they avoid Child Protection Services? But against the odds, and with the help of her friends, strong-willed Rocks finds a solution.
IMDb-score: 7.4
Published: 15/11/2024 Last updated: 15/11/2024
