The
best lacrosse players tend to fall into two demographics: prep school elites
and First Nations descendants of the original inventors of the game. The
struggling Inuit students of a remote arctic Canadian town would identify with
the latter. A new high school teacher introduces them to the game, but of
course, he will learn just as much as his students in Miranda de Pencier’s The
Grizzlies, which opens this Friday in New York, at least as of the last we
heard.
Russ
Sheppard accepted a temporary teaching position at Kugluktuk High School in
Nunavut (Canada’s northernmost territory, which split off from the Northwest
Territories in 1999), hoping it would bolster his wait-listed employment
application at an elite prep school. Basically, he is like Dr. Joel Fleischman with
a lacrosse stick, but Cicely, Alaska was considerably more prosperous than the
community he finds himself in. In fact, Sheppard is so concerned by the high
rate of teen suicide, he tries to form a lacrosse team, just to give the kids
something to do.
Outsiders
cannot get anymore outside than Sheppard, so he constantly commits cultural
gaffes. Nevertheless, the power of the game starts to reach many of the kids—and
they grudgingly start giving him credit for giving a darn. Unfortunately, the
school principle remains skeptical and his best players will be constantly
distracted by family issues.
One
way or another, you know adversity will be triumphed over in a film like this.
However, de Pencier sidesteps the most obvious sports underdog clichés, making
their based-on-a-true-story victories modest and believable. Still, she leaves
some rather glaring loose ends conspicuously hanging.
There
is no denying The Grizzlies follows a time-honored formula, but de
Pencier largely avoids cliched fish-out-of-water humor, in favor of well-intentioned
social drama. Frankly, it is a baffling shame the film is rated R, because
there is nothing here you couldn’t see in an after-school special. De Pencier
just presents it all with brutal honesty.
Ben
Schnetzer is always credible playing the teacher learning to engage with his
students and their community, but he really is the least interesting character
in the film. Emerald MacDonald is terrific as Miranda, Sheppard’s only diligent
student, who becomes the student manager of The Grizzlies, as the team will
eventually be known. Paul Nutarariaq, Ricky Marty-Pahtaykan, and Booboo Stewart
are all impressive playing Zach, Adam, and Kyle, three kids struggling with
very different challenges at home. Will Sasso also supplies some comic relief,
but shrewdly, he and de Pencier keep it restrained (and therefore effective), as
Sheppard’s rumpled sidekick, Mike.
The
Grizzlies is
a nice film that young people should respond to, but anyone who could buy a
ticket without a parent or guardian will definitely feel like they have seen the
gist of it before. Still, de Pencier does not sugar coat the poverty of Nunavut
or the indifference of the local school bureaucrats. Recommended for teens
looking for something deeper than CW TV shows or cheesy teen urban fantasy novels,
The Grizzlies opens (maybe, hopefully) this Friday (3/20) in New York,
at the AMC Empire.
