Movie Review: Native sports drama ‘Rez Ball’ follows formula but wins out with heart and poignancy

A scrappy young team of underdogs — in both sports and life — must find a way to unite and win that big championship. Can they do it? How many times have we seen that story, and who among us couldn’t write the ending right now?
That may be just what you’re thinking as you settle into “Rez Ball,” the latest entry in the canon of inspirational youth sports movies, and the sub-canon of inspirational youth basketball movies. And yes, there’s a lot you can predict from the outset, not to mention lines you could have pre-written, word for word.
But that doesn’t mean your heart won’t be caught up in this deeply felt, poignantly told story from Navajo country, especially when the last player takes that last shot in those final seconds — never mind some heavy-handed moments. And it bears mentioning that the basketball pedigree is unimpeachable here, with none other than LeBron James producing.
So many movies begin promisingly and fail to stick the landing. “Rez Ball,” directed by Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland (the title is shorthand for “reservation ball”) is quite the opposite, a movie whose ending lifts the rest of the film up with it.
Indeed, there’s a palpable sense of fresh energy — visual, and emotional — the minute our underdog team, the Warriors from the fictional town of Chuska, New Mexico, arrives at the state championships in Albuquerque. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Freeland and co-writer Sterlin Harjo, their script inspired by Michael Powell’s book “Canyon Dreams,” begin with a flashback. Young boys Nataanii and Jimmy are playing basketball in happier times. We move to their high school years. They’re both skilled players — especially Nataanii, whose height, grace and speed have made him a local hero.
But life has taken a dark turn. Nataanii (Kusem Goodwind) sat out the previous season because of the deaths of his mother and sister at the hands of a drunken driver, a tragic but not uncommon occurrence in the community. But despite falling into depression, Nataanii has returned for the new season.
The team’s coach, Heather (Jessica Matten), is a former WNBA player who grew up locally and has her own complicated history, as does Jimmy’s mother, Gloria, a former high school star who fell on hard times.
Trouble rears its head in only the second game, against Santa Fe Catholic, a cocky team that crushes the Warriors. Much worse is the fact that Nataanii hasn’t shown up and nobody’s heard from him. After the game, the team is delivered devastating news that threatens their ability to continue.
And it puts the pressure squarely on Jimmy, now the captain. Gradually, they coalesce into a workable unit. In an early team-building exercise, coach Heather tasks the boys with herding some escaped sheep on her grandmother’s land. She also engages an assistant coach who puts an emphasis on Navajo spiritual traditions. Under Jimmy, the team also embraces the clever idea of calling their plays in Navajo, to thwart their rivals.
Things go well but then fall apart, on court and off, at a critical moment in the season. And though the team makes it to state playoffs at the famous “Pit” — the 15,000-seat university arena in Albuquerque — there’s a real question as to “which” Chuska Warriors will show up.
It’s a moment of truth for Jimmy — played by the appealing Kauchani Bratt (nephew of Benjamin) — who must not only rally his team, but triumph over the pessimism his bitter mother imparts to him, especially about basketball. Gloria (Julia Jones) tells him she doesn’t come to his games because she doesn’t want to see him fail. Another gem from Mom: “The higher you go, the greater the fall.”
Such lines would land with more authenticity if Gloria had been given a deeper backstory. The off-court life of Heather, too, is given cursory treatment. Two appealing girlfriend characters also get short shrift. The filmmakers clearly have one focus, which is to impart drama through basketball. And the game scenes are the best ones, with director Freeland, cinematographer Kira Kelly and a cast of newcomers — not to mention a basketball choreographer — joining to produce some exciting on-court moments.
Luckily, Bratt inhabits Jimmy with charm and ease. (A Native performer with varsity basketball experience, he and other actors had to prove their ball skills before being cast.) And so it comes down to Jimmy, at the end, with his hand on the ball at that crucial moment.
We won’t tell you what happens. And even if you’re sure you know, is that really the point?
“Rez Ball,” a Netflix release, has been rated rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association “for thematic elements including suicide, teen drug/alcohol use, language and some crude references.” Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.