Drew Burnett Gregory is back at TIFF, reporting daily with queer movie reviews from one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals. Follow along for her coverage of the best in LGBTQ+ cinema and beyond.
“They might be stars on the court, but they’re still just kids.”
Former WNBA player and struggling high school basketball coach Heather Hobbs (Jessica Matten) says this line when trying to convince her mentor to come on as assistant coach. She’s emphasizing the fragility of her team in the wake of an immense loss, but their status as “just kids” is also what can make high school and college sports so enthralling. Because of their youth, these athletes are even more unpredictable. They lack the polish of pros, more impacted by circumstance, less consistent in their gameplay. It makes for great sporting events, and, even more so, it makes for a great sports movie.
Sydney Freeland’s Rez Ball is about a group of kids underestimated by everyone but themselves. Inspired by the book Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation, the film follows the Chuska Warriors, led by Coach Hobbs and team captain Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt), as they attempt to win a championship after losing their star player. While the film hits the expected genre beats, it also doesn’t soften the problems faced by teenagers — especially Indigenous teenagers living in the U.S. This is a basketball movie, but it’s a basketball movie that deals with suicide, alcoholism, and generational grief.
While, at first, the film is a tad easy in its exposition — we learn Coach Hobbs is breaking up with her girlfriend due to a brief text that appears on the screen — once the plot gets going, Freeland and co-writer Sterlin Harjo balance the tone and various characters. Its portrayal of grief experienced by youths may lack the sharp subtlety of Harjo’s Reservation Dogs (on which Freeland worked as a writer and director), but there’s simply going to be a different approach between an FX dramedy series and the tighter, more commercial format of a Netflix sports movie.
However, what this movie does share with that series is impeccable craft and exceptional casting. Since her debut Drunktown’s Finest, Freeland has built a stellar body of work. She directed beloved web series Her Story, the underrated feature Diedra and Laney Rob a Train, and a bunch of television including P-Valley and Echo. Freeland’s skill and experience are on full display here, especially during the basketball sequences. Whether the Warriors are winning or losing, Freeland makes us feel like we’re on the court. Creed III editor Jessica Baclesse and longtime Queen Sugar cinematographer Kira Kelly help create a visual language that combines action with poetry.
Beyond the film’s form, Freeland’s talent as a director is felt in the performances she gets from her cast. From seasoned performers to young newcomers, everyone in this film is excellent and excellent with each other. Chemistry goes beyond romance and the whole cast has chemistry whether that’s as mother/son, coach/player, or teammates. (Also Bratt and Zoey Reyes as Jimmy’s coworker/Navajo tutor/love interest Krista do have plenty of romantic chemistry.) Throughout the film, Jimmy has to learn that a player is only as good as their team, and that’s on full display in how these actors work with one another.
While I wish Coach Hobbs got a love interest beyond the specter of her ex, Jessica Matten does an excellent job embodying a competitive dyke nursing the wounds of her breakup by throwing herself into her career. She’s the heart of the film, alongside Bratt and Julia Jones as Jimmy’s mother, a character who could have merely occupied the archetype of bad mom, but due to Jones’ performance instead feels like a complicated woman haunted by reality.
Rez Ball reminds me of the sports movies I watched over and over again as a kid. Except none of those movies had a queer coach and featured a montage set to Lil Nas X. None of those movies had the craft of Sydney Freeland.
“Jessica Matten does an excellent job embodying a competitive dyke nursing the wounds of her breakup by throwing herself into her career” – highly relatable content i will be eagerly anticipating the release of this movie
Even having seen the trailer, I thought this was an adaptation of Byron Graves’ novel of the same name, so I was wondering why they’d changed the nation and location.
Good to know it’s actually based on Canyon Dreams (and funny that the plot of both is so similar – I wonder if Graves’ novel was inspired by it as well…).