Back to trending
Won't Back Down

Won't Back Down

Drama · 2012

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Movie details

Won't Back Down

“If you can't beat the system... change it”

2012 Drama 2h 1m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Won't Back Down?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Drama · 2012

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Sky

Sky

Drama · 2016

A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.

Fast Girls

Fast Girls

Drama · 2012

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

Skin

Skin

Drama · 2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Here

Here

Drama · 2024

An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.

Starving in Suburbia

Starving in Suburbia

Drama · 2014

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

Adopt a Highway

Adopt a Highway

Drama · 2019

Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

Eleanor the Great

Eleanor the Great

Drama · 2025

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

Drama · 2013

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

Fatima

Fatima

Drama · 2020

In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Daniel Barnz

Written by

Daniel Barnz · Brin Hill

Viola Davis

Viola Davis

Nona Alberts

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Jamie Fitzpatrick

Ving Rhames

Ving Rhames

Principal Thompson

Lance Reddick

Lance Reddick

Charles Alberts

Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez

Breena Harper

Emily Alyn Lind

Emily Alyn Lind

Malia

Stephen Weigand

Stephen Weigand

Riske's assistant

Court is in session

Put Won't Back Down on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.