Hollywood often turns to the world of sports for subject matter, but there's a problem with almost all of the based-on-a-true-story films: The real stuff is a lot more interesting.
Just last year, Ben Affleck was terrific as an alcohol addict who gets one last shot when he's handed the reins of a basketball team in "The Way Back." "Safety," about a college football player who raised his brother in his dorm room, was just as inspiring. But in both cases — as well as running-themed "McFarland, USA" and, probably, the in-the-works Florence Griffith Joyner biopic — it's hard to watch actors pretend to participate in true-life events without wishing you could see the actual people.
A classic example is "Fear Strikes Out," where Anthony Perkins' lack of athleticism makes it seem like Jim Piersall somehow became a baseball legend without learning how to throw a ball. That feeling of inauthenticity often hits home when fictional sports movies close with montages of the real participants, leaving you thinking, "Where's the footage of them?" (I'm not aware of a Piersall documentary, but I can recommend the fine "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," who played baseball a few years earlier.)
Fortunately, there are quite a few sports documentaries where the footage does exist. Not all sports lend themselves to the documentary treatment; I'm struggling to think of a great nonfiction movie about golf. But, whether it's the speed of auto racing ("Senna"), the violence of football ("League of Denial"), the survival instincts of distance runners ("Tokyo Olympiad") or the grace and athleticism of tennis ("Venus and Serena"), gifted athletes translate well to the screen.
Increasingly, sports have become a vehicle for other stories, bringing issues such as gender identity, racism, classism and sexual abuse (last year's "Athlete A" largely focused on Little Canada gymnast Maggie Nichols) to fans who may not have engaged with those issues without the sports connection.
These days, when athletes such as Naomi Osaka speak out about mental health and even the NFL is belatedly admitting its racism, sports pages are no longer about sports. Or, at least, not entirely about sports. And neither are these outstanding sports-themed documentaries.
Simply put, it's a masterpiece. Steve James' account of four years in the life of two Chicago high school basketball players gives you the surprises and heartbreaks a doc can provide only if a filmmaker has intimate access to his subjects. James and his crew seem to have been there for every triumph and setback for William Gates and Arthur Agee in a movie that's as much about equity, poverty and love as it is hoops. Except for an annoying but brief appearance by sportscaster Dick Vitale, every minute of its three hours is perfect.
It's another movie where the filmmaker (Ward Serrill) seems to have been on the scene for all the important stuff and where the subjects are willing to reveal their every thought. It's a dual portrait of elite Seattle high school cager Darnellia Russell, who faces a series of impossible challenges with candor and grace, and her coach Bill Resler, whose off-the-hip comments include this one as his team pursues a state title: "You tell them, 'Go do A-B-C,' and they'll look at you and say, 'Yes, we're going to go do A-B-C,' and they're excited about A-B-C, and five seconds later you watch them do X-Y-Z."
