These archetypes all look familiar within sports realms: lovably incompetent people unexpectedly going the distance. An inexperienced coach that turns to unconventional methods to cope with the enormous pressure from every angle. To me, it is unsurprising that Rez Ball incorporates all three of these elements into its plot. What surprises me, and indeed, what captures my interest is how a deeper merge of these lives manages to keeps you rather glued into the lives of the Native American team that attempts to emerge high from the tragedy they face.
Rez Ball tells the tale of the Chuska High Warriors. The expectations for them were promising as they came into the season prepared to challenge for a New Mexico state title with Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind) and Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt) on their side. However, after Nataaani decides to take his own life, Coach Heather (Jessica Matten) and the entire team have a tough journey ahead of them. Will they ever be able to cope with the tragedy and unite as a team? Or will the defeat and sadness hold them back from achieving their goals?
All that adversity I am talking about does not come easy. Losing a star player is enough to send a coach and the team into shock, and losing this specific player to suicide is just the icing on the cake. The hardest part is just getting onto the court. What you do have to give credit for is the strength of this team and the community around them and. Sydney Freeland and Sterlin Harjo the writers were insightful enough to allow their characters to go through suffering, but spared us from the details of how long they had to dwell on the problem. They come up with solutions for their problems which is what makes these characters so relatable.
The better that they do, the easier it becomes to support them because of how much they have put into themselves and the community has put into them.
In a more minute level, allow me to compliment this movie’s basketball sequences. Major studios like Netflix and Disney tend to slack on the sports scenes. Nothing is more immersion breaking than seeing “athletes” who can’t play ball. Well, these kids got game. Their styles of shooting are realistic and unforced. They look like any adolescent who has spent time shooting hoops in the pursuit of fun in parks and gyms. And that is exactly how the camerawork has been done. The motion of the screen is fluid and simple. There are very few quick cuts or too-close zooming in that disorient you, and the screen’s motion is smooth. There’s also some slow motion here and there, but that’s to accent key moments, so it’s tolerable.
The only thing that kills me about Rez Ball is the lack of marketing and release it received. Story wise, there was already a documentary about this same team, so it’s a story that could get some viewers and endorsements. Unfortunately, the Netflix model is gonna have this movie in their top 10 for a week max and will not promote it, since there isn’t a big director or star attached.
These are bound to lose out to other upcoming releases like Super Mario Bros. and Madame Web along with the 10th spot, as these have had actual runs in theatres. This is Rez Ball’s sole perspective for viewership. The marketing around these movies is almost insulting to me. I never saw anything regarding this film’s promotion, other than some vague trailers posted on YouTube. Back in the day, Netflix had TV commercials and billboards for The Gray Man. Even with everything bolstered by the star of the movie, that flick was simply terrible. Something like Rez Ball, worth its salt, gets treated like sepia by Netflix, which, for context, is how much a marketing budget for a Volkswagen Passat from 1999 would be, which is to say non existent. It seems like Netflix is completely oblivious to the cinematic gems at their suitcase, or if they are aware, it feels as though they don’t care.
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