Between the world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival of “Unstoppable,” “The Fire Inside” and director Sydney Freeland’s “Rez Ball,” it’s safe to say that the “inspirational sports film inspired by true events” is back with a vengeance. Co-written with “Reservation Dogs” co-creator Sterlin Harjo and based on the nonfiction novel “Canyon Dreams,” it follows a basketball season with the Chuska High School Warriors, a Navajo Reservation basketball team that wins the state championship in New Mexico.
You know the movie’s beats from the start, starting with the introductions of the teammates and their struggles. First, we meet star player Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind), who’s still reeling from the deaths of his mother and sister at the hands of a drunk driver a year earlier. Then there’s his best friend, Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt, impossibly charming), who has to work at a burger joint before school to support his single mother, Gloria (Julia Jones). Finally, there’s Coach Hobbs (Jessica Matten), a great WNBA player but now back home reeling from the failure of her new career.
Despite a passionate season-opening game in which Nataanii leads the team to victory, the absence of his deceased loved ones clearly affects him deeply. His body language is constricted, he withdraws into himself so completely that he is impenetrable. On the court, he glides through the air, scoring basket after basket effortlessly. He excels at basketball as if it were his first language. Off the court, however, there is a marked sadness, a heaviness to his demeanor that immediately sets him apart from his teammates. When he fails to show up for his next game, news comes that shakes the team to its foundations. The reserves have some of the most The highest rates of death by suicide in the country, and it seems that this young athlete has decided that he can no longer live with the weight of his pain.
The film then shifts its perspective to Jimmy, who previously seemed like a supporting character; it’s an abrupt and surprising shift that allows Freeland to put us into the character’s psyche. This pressure is compounded when Coach Hobbs, who has the difficult task of leading this team through their grief and the season, names Jimmy their captain. Their team-building exercises are unique and entertaining. One afternoon, she takes them to her grandmother’s sheep farm, where they must work as a team to bring the sheep that escaped from the mountains and back to their enclosure. Here, Jimmy begins to see the value of Navajo traditions, including the language itself.
After several debilitating losses, the team finds strength — and even an edge — in embracing these traditions, calling their plays in their native tongue so that their opposing teams can’t follow them. This gives the film one of its best jokes: a shout-out to the Nicolas Cage film “Windtalkers.” Throughout the script, Harjo and Freeland wisely contrast the heavier moments with sly, sometimes self-deprecating humor, often offered by a pair of color commentators who seem to have an endless supply of frybread jokes. The result is a film that feels at once familiar but also refreshingly original.
Freeland excels at filming the basketball sequences, using fluid camera movements to follow the ball and stylized slow motion as the team works together to score points. These action sequences are well-balanced with plenty of character development moments that allow the lead actors to shine as they share their traumas, joys, and all the things that make humans so complex. Unfortunately, because of the film’s large cast, not all of the characters get as much development as they should. For example, it’s odd to see a star like Amber Midthunder limited to a supporting girlfriend character, but she makes the most of every moment of her short screen time.
The main story threads aren’t as tightly woven as they could be, either. The film abandons Coach Hobbs’ emotional journey for long stretches, depriving her final scenes of the emotional weight they should carry. Jimmy’s relationship with his coworker Krista (Zoey Reyes), who helps teach the team to speak the Navajo language, seems to exist solely for that plot point and not much else. The parallel journeys between Jimmy and his mother, however, are well-balanced. While he comes to terms with his heritage and the responsibility of leadership, she overcomes her pessimistic outlook, holding down a job and attending AA meetings to help with her alcoholism.
Despite its structural flaws, “Rez Ball” manages to be inspiring without being condescending. There’s a lived-in intimacy at its heart and humor that’s both culturally specific and universal. It’s also just plain entertaining from start to finish. I’m happy to report that the renaissance of feel-good sports movies is off to a great start.