The Grizzlies

Though it's a familiar plot about kids learning discipline and teamwork through sports, The Grizzlies is brought to life through the specifics that make the characters and their sense of place -- and of displacement -- central to the story.

It's exactly the type of uplifting movie that could boost spirits during these bleak times.

Bracingly unsentimental and transcendently moving at the same time.

It's a fascinating puzzle: a film that is simultaneously an indictment of the toxic legacy of cultural imperialism and a weepie that employs the familiar tropes of Hollywood, one of the biggest machines of cultural imperialism on the planet.

Director Miranda de Pencier's fact-based sports drama tells a story of hope amid rampant despair.

Sensitive yet never mawkish... earns its heart, spirit and warmth.

Corny, cliched and ham-fisted, yet it still manages to get under your guard with its heartfelt message about reigniting the spirit of despondent youth...Breaks down your natural resistance to platitudes through the sheer force of sincerity.

Director Miranda de Pencier... does a fabulous job in her first feature film of balancing feelings of authenticity and uplift, ensuring there are both heartwrenching and heartwarming moments.

This is a film that could have gone wrong in so many ways, yet in so many ways it goes right.

A gripping sports movie worthy of its place in that canon.