The Heart of the Game (PG-13, 2006)

THE HEART OF THE GAME follows the Rough Riders, a Seattle high school girls' basketball team led by the unlikely tax-professor-turned coach Bill Resler. Resler's unique and effective coaching style (which includes encouraging the girls to think of their opponents as prey), inspires the girls to work hard and excel. With Resler's help, the team looks towards the state championship. The documentary finds its shape in following star player Darnellia Russell's compelling story: As she matures, she learns to cope with competing demands on her time. Even when she faces what seems a career-stopping event -- pregnancy -- she has her baby, learns to rely on her family and her baby's young, devoted father, and comes back. Her teammates rally behind her when the WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) rules that she cannot return to play, because she's now in her fifth year in high school. Even as local media create a swirl of controversy, her lawyer argues the ruling discriminates against girls. While Bill Resler and Darnellia are plainly inspirations -- for one another as well as the team -- the movie also keeps sight of the multiple lives intertwining throughout this process, with attention to opposing teams and Darnellia's family members.

Heart of the Team is an intelligent, challenging, and entertaining documentary that's been compared to Hoop Dreams, probably the best sports documentary ever. But Heart also does some important work that film does not, namely, it considers issues specific to girls, including a sexually abusive coach one girl hires to improve her personal game and the subtle and unsubtle ways that misogyny still shapes expectations of women athletes and girls with ambitions.