Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story (2020)

Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story (2020)

The tale of a forgotten champion

The Very Best

8.2

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary
2020
ADAM CAROLLA, NATE ADAMS
Adam Carolla, Al Unser Jr., Bernie Ecclestone
109 min

What it's about

An in-depth profile of the life and career of Willy T. Ribbs - the controversial Black driver who shattered the color barrier of professional auto-racing and became the first Black qualifier in the storied history of the Indy 500.

The take

“They called me uppity. Uppity n*****. And I loved it”. That’s how this excellent documentary, about the first professional black racing driver Willy T. Ribbs, starts. It summarizes the strong personality of a champion who excelled in tracks that were filled with confederate flags.

The documentary explains the details of the difficulties that Ribbs went through in the 70s and 80s, but also the people who supported him and recognized his talent. It’s by no way a sad movie, on the contrary, even when Ribbs is talking about people spitting wherever he walks or about the death threats escalating, his unharmed determination is at the center of the story.

This is an inspiring documentary about a character who never got his worth in the history books. I was full of shivers by the first half-hour mark.

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

The Novelist’s Film (2022)

A deeply meaningful and uncommonly tender high point in director Hong Sang-soo's prolific career

8.8

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Art of Love (2024)

An underwhelming heist romance with all of the style but none of the thrills

5.7

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (2023)

A dying criminal kills to be the most wanted in this Taiwanese Western-esque gangster drama

7.5

Last Call for Istanbul (2023)

A seemingly generic Turkish romance travel film, until it gets into its second half

7.0

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack (2024)

A necessary and uncomfortable depiction of the rape case that changed Spain

7.3

The Zone of Interest (2023)

A chilling and masterful display of the banality of evil

9.5

Wind River (2017)

Sicario's screenwriter directs this story of murder in an Indigenous reserve

9.4

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.