Cody Lightning’s wonderfully balanced dramedy Smudge the Blade shows the racism Indigenous players face in hockey. Full of heart and unafraid to get angry, there’s a lot to love about this one.

Treaty 6 Blades, an under-28 hockey team from an Alberta reservation, face their last season together while navigating through their tough Northern league.

Wisely in Lightning’s script, he hasn’t just focused on the racism placed on the young players by the league, though that is leaned on rightfully quite heavily to show how racism has limited talented players like those in Treaty 6 Blades. Throughout Smudge the Blades, we see how the league decides this group isn’t worthy, and how one incident with one player costs the entire team. There is enough drama there to fill the film. Yet Lightning knows there is more to explore here without overloading the narrative. The focus might be the underdog story of the team “beating the system” by winning, but there’s also a strong sense of belonging here. To accept yourself and drive the positives of that forward to make something of yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to be hockey, but hey, who knows where the correct attitude in life can get you.

That said, this is an underdog sports story, just told with a fresher lens; we hit some of the typical beats that you would expect from a drama that leans heavily on humour to get by. There is a strong thread of anger coursing through Smudge the Blade. Expectantly so, in fact, there are a group who have been nothing but put down all their lives, not just by those within the sport, when the team is lambasted with stereotypes after a loss. It is a little jarring. But you get that Lightning is trying to show us as much of the reality of what happens to kids like this while still adding melodrama or humour to the film.

The performances are solid without ever truly standing out, but this is a film that has the majority of the cast being quite young and inexperienced, so you forgive them for being very rough around the edges in their performances, but with Lightning taking the lead, there is still enough earnestness here that has you believe in them as a group.

Smudge the Blade does a lot of things right; it has character and is as sincere as can be, yet there isn’t quite enough development, and it can be heavy-handed at times. However, by the time we get to the finale, we are still cheering for the team. Underdogs will always win you over, especially if you are a hockey fan.

★★★

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