The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Touchback
Drama · Family · Fantasy · 2011
A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.
Movie details
Touchback
2011 Drama · Family · Fantasy 1h 58m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.
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 Touchback?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe 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.
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Drama · 1995
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Cryptozoo
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Tuesday
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A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
The Secret Life of Bees
Family · 2008
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Nine Days
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A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Heavenly Creatures
Drama · 1994
Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
Aníkúlápó
Drama · 2022
After an affair with a queen leads to his demise, an eager traveler encounters a mystical bird with the power to give him another life.
Interstate 60
Adventure · 2002
An aspiring painter meets various characters and learns valuable lessons while traveling across America.
The Fall
Adventure · 2006
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Don Handfield
Written by
Don Handfield
Brian Presley
Scott Murphy
Kurt Russell
Coach Hand
Melanie Lynskey
Macy
Marc Blucas
Hall
Christine Lahti
Thelma
Sarah Wright
Jenny
Drew Powell
Dwight Pearson
Court is in session
Put Touchback on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.