Blood-soaked supernatural horror Viking Wolf might be the streaming service’s number one most-watched movie of the weekend, but uplifting autobiographical drama True Spirit has shown that decidedly human tales are just as capable of making a dent among subscribers as buzzy genre films.
Teagan Croft stars as Jessica Watson, who set out with the intention of becoming the youngest person to ever sail solo on a nonstop unassisted voyage around the world, which inevitably presents plenty of roadblocks given the treacherous nature of the oceans and the complete and utter lack of any other human being for often hundreds of miles around.
Directed by Sarah Spillane, True Spirit ticks a lot of boxes you’d expect to see from such an inspirational tale, but near-identical Rotten Tomatoes scores of 73 and 74 percent from critics and audiences at the time of writing underline that it’s been told in a substantially above average manner.
The film has additionally found instant success on the platform, too, with FlixPatrol outing True Spirit as a Top 10 most-watched feature in no less than 77 nations around the world, good enough to see it rank as the third top-viewed title on the global charts behind only the aforementioned Viking Wolf and star-studded comedy You People.
In terms of quality, Netflix’s 2023 has gotten off to a strong start, and it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the A-list Hollywood exclusives that cost the company a fortune to produce have had very little to do with it so far.
