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Poster for Personal Best

Personal Best

1982 · 124 min

A slow, intimate character study of athletes whose personal and professional lives collide, with raw emotional honesty and a bittersweet tone.

Directed by
Robert Towne
Genres
Drama
Tagline
When you run into yourself you run into feelings you never thought you had.
Overview
Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

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Directed by
Robert Towne
Genres
Drama
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
  • romanticstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • identity
  • ambition
  • love
  • betrayal
  • obsession
Places
  • big city
  • countryside
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror0
Humour2
Realism8
Romance6
Tension5
Darkness4
Complexity5
Emotional weight7

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Cast

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Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Robert Towne
Written by
Robert Towne
Starring
Mariel Hemingway, Patrice Donnelly, Scott Glenn, Kenny Moore, Jim Moody, Larry Pennell, Luana Anders, George De La Pena
Music
Jack Nitzsche, Jill Fraser
Cinematography
Michael Chapman
Runtime
124 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
Spanish, English

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