Sports have a unique way of uniting people when it feels as though there's no other connective issue worth latching onto. Whether it's the spirit of competition or the incomparable experience of going all-in on a common goal, there's little that compares to its ability to bridge the gaps we can't otherwise mend.
Rez Ball, produced by Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, adds its name to the list of great sports movies that epitomize that experience.
Rez Ball is a powerful story about a Native American high school basketball team from New Mexico that must learn to rely on one another in the face of devastating adversity. Tremendous displays of on-court action are balanced by themes of grief, loss, and generational trauma in Netflix's new force of a film.
Starring Jessica Matten, perhaps best known for her roles in series such as Dark Winds and Frontier, Rez Ball is essential viewing for any fan of basketball and great films alike.
Matten plays a former WNBA player who becomes the head coach of the Chuska Warriors. The Warriors are forced to overcome the loss of their star player and find a way to realize their dream of winning a state championship.
Matten's character, Heather Hobbs, channels the legendary Seven Seconds or Less era of the Phoenix Suns, as she tells her team: "We run fast! We shoot fast! We don't ever stop!"
Rez Ball is a moving film with depth and incredible on-court action
Kauchani Bratt makes his acting debut as Jimmy Holiday, the player tasked with becoming the new leader and go-to player for his team. It's a breakout performance from Bratt, who's all but certain to parlay this role into a long and decorated career.
Holiday, meanwhile, is a character to whom many can relate, with a tragic and heartbreaking backstory that lays the groundwork for both calamitous and empowering moments throughout the film.
Rez Ball also continues the long overdue development of Native American stories entering the mainstream purview. Long overlooked in Hollywood, shows such as Dark Winds, Echo, Frontier, Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and Yellowstone have helped contribute to that belated shift.
Earlier this year, Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis made history as the first Indigenous women to receive nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards for their roles on Under the Bridge and True Detective: Night Country, respectively.
Rez Ball is another crucial step toward Indigenous representation becoming a common theme in Hollywood. Its director and co-writer Sydney Freeland, a transgender Native American woman, has been a vocal proponent and industry catalyst of that necessary change.
Freeland's past credits as a director include Echo, Fear the Walking Dead, Grey's Anatomy, Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
If you're looking for a film that highlights the beauty of sports and how they connect us, Rez Ball is well worth your time. If you want a story with depth, strong writing and acting, and real-world themes, then the same can be said.
In either scenario, Rez Ball is a can't-miss experience that can be found on Netflix as of Friday, September 27.
Watch Rez Ball only on Netflix.