Even those with an aversion to upbeat, sports-themed feel-good dramas are bound to be seduced by the wrestling indie Win Win.

The Adjustment Bureau may have put so much time and energy into the star-studded cameos that open the film that it forgot to pay attention to the real meat of the matter. This conceptual thriller centers on ambitious senatorial candidate David Norris, an authentic, no-bullshit politician who has risen to the ranks of beloved working-class hero.

As man-against-nature stories go, 127 Hours is a bit of a detour: no fending off wolves or grizzlies, flash floods or blizzards. Aron Ralston’s foe is, instead, the inert but somehow malevolent boulder that falls—along with Aron—into a narrow crevice in the earth, pinning his arm and Aron himself.

Watching the latest installment in the Harry Potter franchise, one might occasionally feel transported to the post-apocalyptic bummer landscape of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.