Underfunded
2026 · 24m · United States
Directed by Tommy Joe Martins
Tones: contemplative, tense
At a NASCAR tryout and throughout the stock-car world, a talented unknown driver, an aging former champion, a top prospect, and a team owner each face money, pride, and career-ending pressure.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
NASCAR drama about money and ego sounds like every other sports redemption film, but Martins might've found something genuinely weird in the margins—I need to see if he actually subverts the genre or just rides it competently.
Four interlocking perspectives on pressure and ambition suggests a classical structure Martins is aware of; the test will be whether the editing and pacing honor that architecture or flatten it into prestige-drama formula.
The smart move here is probably a single recurring visual or sound motif that ties these four characters' desperation together—if Martins found that one formal constraint that makes the budget and scope feel inevitable rather than limiting, this could crystallize into something real.