Race

The dazzling Olympic career of track-and-field legend Jesse Owens, who won three gold medals and shared a fourth at the 1936 games in Berlin, thereby putting the lie to Hitler’s boasts of Aryan racial superiority, gets a solid if uninspired filming from writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse and director Stephen Hopkins. The truth is, the bare facts of the story are inspiring enough, and at least the movie doesn’t drop the ball. Stephan James puts himself on the map with a strong showing as Owens, matched by Jason Sudeikis as Owens’ coach, acquitting himself well in a change-of-pace straight dramatic role. It’s essentially a two-character movie, but others do well in support: Carice van Houten as documentary filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, Jeremy Irons in a long cameo as Olympic bigwig Avery Brundage, etc. J.L.