The teen sports drama Rez Ball follows a familiar, but solid template to weave a story about an indigenous community that lives and breathes basketball. Sports movie enthusiasts will immediately recognize that director Sidney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest, Echo) and co-writer Sterlin Harjo (creator of Reservation Dogs) are adapting journalist Michael Powell’s non-fiction book Canyon Dreams to fit the same mould as Friday Night Lights, another project that took a community’s love for sports and expanded its viewpoint far beyond the game itself. The sentiment is similar, but the rural Navajo reservation setting and cultural specificity coaxes out new layers in the formula, making Rez Ball a crowd pleaser that feels both familiar and enlightening at the same time.
The Chuska Warriors, playing out of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, are poised and expected to have a great season. One of the top ranked basketball teams in the state, the Warriors are bolstered by superstar players Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt) and Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind), the latter of whom is returning after sitting out their Junior year following an unfathomable familial tragedy. While community support for the team remains at an all time high, so too does the scrutiny placed upon Coach Heather Hobbs (Jessica Matten), a WNBA burnout in a faltering long distance relationship who’s desperately trying (and failing) to secure a better paying, more high profile job someplace else. The new season ahead isn’t an easy one, and a shocking turn of events places a lot of pressure on Holiday and Hobbs in particular to turn things around. But after a poor start where the Warriors get knocked as low as they could possibly go, the team proves that they can get back up twice as strong.
Freeland and Harjo work the inspirational sports movie formula expertly, but it’s the finer details and issues unique to reservation life and the interconnectedness of community that sets Rez Ball far apart from most of its peers. Just when things get hard and criticism from the community at large grows alongside the Warriors’ losing streak, the coach and players come up with outside-the-box solutions rooted in indigenous traditions. Although alcoholism, depression, poverty, and suicide has touched many on the team – particularly the two star players – the spirit perseveres, something that shines brilliantly when Freeland stages one of the most devastating moments in sports movie history. Someone is always willing to help, even when they probably shouldn’t, and often without question, as is the case with the tender professional relationships between Jimmy’s alcoholic, unemployed mother (Julia Jones) and Nataanii’s grieving, recovering mechanic father (Ryan Begay), as well as the one shared by Jackson and his flexible, supportive supervisor (Zoey Reyes) down at the fast food restaurant he works at.
The cinematography from Kira Kelly is stunning both on and off the court, capturing the natural beauty of the desert landscapes, small town life, and the game with remarkable depth and panache. The basketball sequences, in particular, are dazzling in the way they capture the titular style. Rez Ball refers to a style of the game that involves fast running, fast shooting, frequent passing, and a relentless offensive, and Freeland does an exceptional job of showing the fundamentals of the team’s lightning pace – and how they evolve their strategies over time – without ever appearing frantic or rushed.
Crucially, the style never outweighs the substance, no matter how comfortable the format fits the material, and the cast of predominantly indigenous performers adds to the communal aspect of the film. Goodwind is quietly commanding as the understandably struggling Nataanii, while Bratt turns in a star making performance as a young person who continually has to conjure up the strength to keep moving forward under the weight of mounting frustrations and growing expectations, both on the court and at home. Matten’s embattled coach is an intriguing character to develop, as it’s sometimes in doubt whether she’s doing her job out of love for the game or as an obligatory stepping stone to something better, leading to a nice bit of subtextual dramatic tension throughout. Reyes and Begay bring a good deal of warmth and empathy to their supporting roles, while Jones ensures her intricately visioned character doesn’t devolve into just another indigenous movie cliche of what a broken person looks like. The Warriors’ commentary team also offers up a fun little Echo reunion, with some great banter and chemistry between Cody Lightning and Dallas Goldtooth.
The big final match-up – a symbolic showdown with the state’s top ranked squad: a predominantly white Catholic school, complete with a contemptible, arrogant star (played with snarling aplomb by Sam Griesel) – is never in doubt, nor are the wrinkles that will make the Big Game (TM) all the more difficult for the team, but Rez Ball is all about the journey and not the destination. Its place among the top tier of inspirational, crowd pleasing, and dramatically satisfying sports movies is all but assured.
Rez Ball is now playing exclusively at Cineplex Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, and begins streaming on Netflix starting Friday, September 27, 2024. Rez Ball screened as part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
