Undefeated

Directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin

(PG-13)

★★★

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Memories of The Blind Side “might invade your head” as you watch this Oscar-nominated documentary, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Like that 2009 hit, it’s a story about a well-off white Southerner who takes a poor black football player under wing—except that the Sandra Bullock role is filled by a real-life coach and his wing is big enough to make fledglings of a whole team. But despite the plot’s familiarity, the film proves to be “an irresistible story of football, faith,” and our hunger for unalloyed happy endings. Curiously, Undefeated never directly addresses issues of race, said John Anderson in The Wall Street Journal. It chooses to focus on how Coach Bill Courtney, who was 4 when his father left him, grew up to find purpose in playing paternal surrogate to countless young men. A “gruff, demanding, often foul-mouthed man,” Courtney appears to be “a born teacher and mentor,” said Dana Stevens in Slate​.com. You should root for him during Sunday’s Academy Awards show, but for the “loyalty and courage” he inspires in young people, he deserves “a lot more than just an Oscar.”