Heather Hobbs (Jessica Matten) is a former professional basketball player and now coaches The Chuska Warriors high school boys’ team in her home state of New Mexico.  The Native American team starts their season with a win, but when their star player, Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind), does not show up for their second game and they suffer a loss.  Departing the court, they suffer an even greater loss back in the locker rooms, learning that Nataanii has died by suicide.  In his absence, Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt) is tapped to be captain, but the team feels empty until Heather changes the trajectory of her coaching to embrace the traditions of the Navajo Nation which the team can rally behind. 

Sydney Freeland writes and directs Rez Ball for Netflix, with assistance on the page from Sterlin Harjo loosely adapting Michael Powell’s 2019 nonfiction book Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation. Together, they created a fictional school and team that contend with many of the same issues highlighted in Powell’s text.  The 111-minute sports drama premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before debuting on the streaming platform only a few weeks later.  Rez Ball is not short on scenes on the court, but it mostly uses the sport as a way in to examine and highlight the challenges faced by high school students today, especially those on the Reservations whose lives are haunted by poverty, underemployment, addiction, and suicide. Heavy as its themes are, it notably does not derive its drama simply from the trauma of it all but seeks to show a rallying community that is strong, resilient, and hopeful. 

Simply put, the first act of this film is an incredible piece of filmmaking and storytelling as we are welcomed into the tight-knit camaraderie shared between Nataanii and Jimmy, as well as the bonds that the community all share with each other through their association and connection to the team.  Freeland frames this opening as Nataanii’s story so when news of his death reaches us, we are just as devastated as the team and it is not a stretch to say that we also get misty-eyed when Heather breaks the tragic news to her boys.  His loss is immediately felt, but the filmmaking does not belabor it so that we feel the loss of a character we met in an ensemble work some twenty minutes prior is a testament to Goodwind’s performance as well as the performances of the rest of the team in the wake of this news. 

The irony lies in that the film’s high-water mark is also a turning point where the film becomes more conventional.  As an inspirational sports drama, the broad strokes of the narrative are known going into it, so the onus then shifts to Freeland and Bratt to keep us invested during the down slump of the Warrior’s season.  The magic of the film lies then in that we do not realize that the two are casting their spell on us, lulling us into the beats of the film so that when Freeland turns the reigns wholly over to Bratt to bring it home, the actor – in his first role – excels and exudes charm.  The script sets the young man up for success by coloring in details of Jimmy’s troubled home life with his alcoholic mother Gloria (Julia Jones) and budding romance with Krista (Zoey Reyes), his coworker and a Navajo language tutor, but it is Bratt that adds the nuance that is found in the negative space surrounding the courier font on the page and makes Jimmy feel like a real person and not just a caricature of grief. 

Like life, Rez Ball oscillates between moments of sadness and moments of joy.  The joy comes near the midpoint of the film when Heather, at her wit’s end with the team, takes them to her grandmother’s (Sarah H. Natani) ranch where the sheep have broken from their pen.  We know this is going to be the big turning point for the boys as they learn to work together as a team after various rifts have begun to develop between them, but Freeland does something more with this otherwise shelf-stocked scene.  After struggling to corral the sheep, Jimmy finally concedes that he went to sheep camp one summer and learned how to form a human corral to bring the sheep together, something the other teammates all joke about as being too “rez” even for them.  The catch is that for this to work, it will need to be two units working in sync with each other, so it helps to bring the team together while also allowing them to embrace their Navajo roots as one half of the corral will have their orders called in their Navajo and the other side will be called by Jimmy in English.  This exercise unlocks a desire within Jimmy to further embrace the shared traditions and culture of the team; each member who through various circumstances of their upbringing may be closer or more distantly connected to it.  For their next game, they call their plays out in Navajo, and newly refocused and rededicated, they embark on a mid-season winning streak that takes them all the way to the playoffs.  From here, Rez Ball falls in line as a sports drama charting a scrappy team’s rise to victory, but Freeland knows that this is a story more about the journey than the destination, so we do not necessarily mind the more truncated third act. 

While the film does prioritize drama, it also spends a significant time on the court and editor Jessica Baclesse assembles Kira Kelly‘s footage in a way that is legible to those even with only a passing understanding of the sport while keeping it exciting as well.  We feed off of the energy of the crowd while Kelly’s camera allows us some interiority to the characters as they dribble, pass, and shoot in front of seemingly all the eyes of the reservation.  What makes these scenes even more exciting than just the adrenaline of the game is the specific style of basketball that the Warriors adopt. The titular Rez ball is a fast-paced style of play where the ball is shot within seven seconds of gaining possession, designed to wear out the other team with the added benefit of racking up points given the team’s multiple opportunities to score.  More so, though, it is the style of play that the boys all grew up with on the reservation, far from the suits, ties, and regulations of the professional league.  It is their game. 

Rez Ball is a film with an incredible heart that wears its emotions on its sleeve which is a nice change of pace when so often masculinity – especially in the realm of sports and for young men who had no other choice but to pick up the mantle in their households – says any show of emotion is to be squashed and suppressed.  As part of the ever-growing catalog of what can almost be called Native New Wave, it is confident enough to not completely rely on tragedy and allows us to revel in the successes of these boys while never downplaying their individual yet practically universal struggles. The film explores many of the anxieties the younger generation is facing without becoming a soap opera despite its heavy themes and drastic plotting.  Supported by a loving director and a dedicated, excited cast who all show incredible naturalness in front of the lens, many of them besides just Bratt in their first roles, Rez Ball is an unassuming film that follows an unassuming team, delivering to audiences an incredible story.  Everyone loves an underdog tale so it is no wonder that Rez Ball offers a cross-generational story that feels true, raw, and deep-cutting, but never crosses the line of being exploitative as it peels off the masks of bravado worn by characters so that it can weave a story of both pain and triumph.