Right now, whether it be on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, you’re probably logging into Netflix to watch the new ‘Starting 5’ behind-the-scenes series, which gives you exclusive access to NBA stars Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Domantas Sabonis, and Jayson Tatum.
Before you do all that, there is yet another new piece of basketball content on N to suit up for. As if the forthcoming Olympic basketball documentary series from this year’s Paris games wasn’t enough. Soon, when you hear that iconic streaming service sound (“ta-dum”), it’ll sound like a ball bouncing on the hardwood.
At the end of September, Netflix released ‘Rez Ball,’ one of their most authentic dramas yet about the love of basketball and much more off the floor. Produced by LeBron James and his SpringHill company, and from the co-creator of ‘Reservation Dogs,’ ‘Rez Ball’s’ poster inspires and implores you to “play fast, shoot fast,” and “take your shot.”
A Toronto International Film Festival favorite, “Rez Ball” is inspired by the book “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation” and The New York Times article by journalist Michael Powell. Written and directed by Sydney Freeland (“The Migration” and Marvel’s “Echo”), with Sterlin Harjo (“Reservation Dogs” and the documentary “This May Be the Last Time”), this is a formidable film that will stay with you long after the last shot has gone through the twine.
Starring Kauchani Bratt, Jessica Matten, Julia Jones, Amber Midthunder, and Kiowa Gordon, the movie focuses on the Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team from New Mexico. They have their eyes on the prize of the state championship, but then they lose their star player to the heartbreak that shatters the dreams of so many young people in these parts.
Compelling cinematography from Kira Kelly (the Emmy nominated ’13th’, and ‘Queen Sugar’), shows us the Navajo Nation, with permission and blessings from local sovereign tribal nations, in all its glory. Not since, Marvel’s ‘Echo’ series, based on a ‘Hawkeye’ villain, has representation been so real.
Balancing the beliefs, rituals, respect for nature, and spiritual practices of the nation with the community’s problems of discrimination, desperation, alcoholism, and even suicide, ‘Rez Ball’ does not take any of its themes or trials lightly. This is the same real-world attention to detail that movies like ‘Wind River,’ starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, and Gil Birmingham, from director Taylor Sheridan, gave us.
The same areas of America those running for office shouldn’t ignore.
Brilliant performances from lead Kauchani Bratt are supported by star power from the likes of ‘Predator’ movie ‘Prey’s’ Amber Midthunder. Canadian Jessica Matten is the coach we all need. But it’s her former teammate, and Bratt’s on-screen mom, Julia Jones, who really steals the show. Not since the late, great Dennis Hopper in the classic ‘Hoosiers’ has alcoholism been dealt with quite like this: real and raw, but respectful.
Through the team to the community it serves, ‘Rez Ball’ leaves nobody behind, and that’s a message we should all pay attention to. It’s the interconnected harmony of life’s equilibrium, the concept of beauty, harmony, and goodness known as ‘Hozho’.
