Between Toronto International Film Festival world premiere presentations of “Unstoppable,” “The Fire Inside,” and director Sydney Freeland’s “Rez Ball,” it’s safe to say the “inspired by true events inspirational sports movie” is back in a big way. Co-written with “Reservation Dogs” co-creator Sterlin Harjo and based on the nonfiction novel “Canyon Dreams,” which follows one season of basketball with the Chuska High School Warriors, a Navajo Reservation basketball team that wins the state championship in New Mexico.
You know the beats the film will hit from the jump, starting with the introductions of the teammates and their hardships. First, we meet star player Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind), still reeling from the death 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, incredibly 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 big-shot WNBA player but is now back home suffering from failure to launch in this new phase of her career.
Despite a fired-up season-opening game in which Nataanii carries the team to a victory, the absence of his departed loved ones clearly affects him deeply. His body language is constricted, pulling into himself so completely as to be impenetrable. On the court, he glides through the air, effortlessly making basket after basket. 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 doesn’t show up for their next game, news arrives that shakes the team to its core. Reservations have some of the highest death-by-suicide rates in the country, and it seems this young athlete has decided that he can no longer live with the weight of his grief.
The film then shifts its perspective to Jimmy, who previously felt like a side character; it’s an abrupt, shocking shift that allows Freeland to place us in the character’s psyche. This pressure is compounded when Coach Hobbs, who has the difficult task of guiding this team through their grief and the season, appoints Jimmy as its captain. Her team-building exercises are unique and entertaining. One afternoon, she takes them to her grandma’s sheep farm, where they must work as a team to bring her escaped sheep down 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 advantage — in embracing these traditions, calling their plays in their native language so their opposing teams won’t be able to follow. This gives the film one of its greatest jokes – a mention of the Nicolas Cage film “Windtalkers.” Throughout the script, Harjo and Freeland wisely contrast the heavier moments with sly, sometimes self-deprecating humor, often delivered by a pair of color commentators who appear to have an endless supply of frybread jokes. The result is a film that feels at once familiar but also refreshingly original.
Freeland excels in shooting the basketball sequences, using fluid camera movements to follow the ball and stylistic slow motion when the team works together to score points. These action sequences are balanced well with a bevy of character-building moments that allow the main actors to shine as they share their traumas, joys, and all of the things that make humans so complex. Unfortunately, due to the film’s large ensemble cast, not every character gets as much development as they should. For example, it’s strange to see a star like Amber Midthunder regulated to a supporting girlfriend character, but she makes the most of every moment of her short screen time.
The threads of the main storylines are also not woven as tightly together as they could be. The film abandons Coach Hobbs’ emotional journey for long stretches, robbing her final scenes of the emotional weight they should have. Jimmy’s relationship with his coworker Krista (Zoey Reyes), who helps teach the team how to speak the Navajo language, seems to exist solely for that plot point and not much else. However, the parallel journeys between Jimmy are well balanced with that of his mother. While he embraces 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.
Regardless of its structural flaws, “Rez Ball” manages to be inspirational without ever feeling pandering. There’s a lived-in intimacy to its heart and humor that is both culturally specific and universally felt. It’s also just plain entertaining from start to finish. I’m happy to report that the feel-good sports movie renaissance is off to a great start.
