A familiar, albeit welcome entry into the underdog sports canon. The film's characters are slight and the conflict is easily overcome, which makes the nearly 2 hr runtime draggy, but the bits on Navajo language are superb.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2025

While it is possible to see the potential for a more original and complex film in Rez Ball, what we have is still a perfectly entertaining film fronted by a strong Native American cast.

| Jan 15, 2025

This is a standard underdog come-from-behind sports story, but it's given greater breadth and depth by its setting... This could've been a really striking movie. As it is, it's an interesting one that suggests promise more than accomplishment.

| Nov 3, 2024

'Rez Ball' is heartwarming and entirely predictable. But in the same way you never tire of your morning coffee, the high school sports genre never gets old.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2024

It's your typical underdog story, but it resonates by going deep into Native American and B-Ball culture, this movie is a winner.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 4, 2024

If Rez Ball starts out at the bottom of a dark, deep canyon...that first step into the sunlight makes the trials of the ascent not only worthwhile, but an essential element of the journey.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 4, 2024

Rez Ball illustrates proudly women taking control and the Navajo Nation controlling the narrative for their people and their stories.

| Oct 4, 2024

Rez Ball memorializes the heart it takes to chase your dreams.

| Oct 3, 2024

It’s unclear if this is Netflix house style pressing down too hard upon the project or simply misguided and underdeveloped conceptualization on the part of the filmmakers.

| Oct 3, 2024

It's a rousing movie that follows the usual genre trajectory, which makes it feel rather predictable and fatalistic. But the setting gives it an extra kick of interest.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2024

Warm, likable characters, savvy direction and an emphasis on endearing sincerity over heavy-handed schmaltz goes a long way toward making this one a winner.

| Oct 1, 2024

Excellent camera work places audiences within gameplay, and despite being heavily basketball-focused, non sports fans will find this true story uplifting and engaging, with underdogs you really want to root for.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 30, 2024

Rez Ball is wonderfully scripted. Funny, ironic, and bursting with the possibility of the future. It recognizes the scars of the past and how they inform the present. Watch Rez Ball and be transported. “Stoodis!”

| Original Score: B | Sep 28, 2024

Rez Ball seemingly knows that its true story is a bit by the numbers, and while it certainly has the highs of your standard sports film, it’s in the lows where Freeland’s movie truly finds itself.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 27, 2024

Rez Ball is a beautiful and challenging sports drama that depicts the tragic true story of events that shaped a Native American community.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 27, 2024

Everyone who took part in the making of this movie deserves to be awarded an MVP trophy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2024

For every missed free throw, there’s a winning three-pointer to make up for it. With that kind of formula, success is guaranteed.

| Sep 27, 2024

The movie tends to race through actual game play — though the actors at least can handle the ball — and so the film’s strength lies more in the players’ easy rapport and the New Mexico location shooting.

| Sep 27, 2024

Rez Ball is well within the established sports movie formula, but its setting and cast of characters make it feel entirely fresh.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Sep 26, 2024

The filmmakers embrace this formula so tightly that none of the movie's other, far more compelling ideas and characters have any room to breathe.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 26, 2024