REVIEW: Hollywood Heartbeat Powers Stirring Football Doc Undefeated

The underdog candidate for this year's Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Undefeated is, fittingly, about an underdog sports team, a group of kids from an underfunded urban school for whom football provides some desperately needed structure as well as a possible route to a better life. There's good reason the Weinstein Company reportedly coughed up seven figures for distribution and remake rights to the film -- Undefeated is Friday Night Lights meets The Blind Side in nonfiction form, examining issues of class and race through the lens of its ragtag athletics program while also reinforcing American mythos of bootstrapping, hard work and community. Its triumphs are bittersweet, but they're irresistible.
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