Wrestle

In the tradition of youth sports-competition documentaries, filmmakers Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer’s Wrestle features the usual drama, triumphs, failures, conflicts, and varying levels of frustration among student athletes and adult coaches. While racism is often a demeaning hurdle for student jocks trying to leverage success on the court, or field, or in the ring, the town of Huntington, AL, seems determined to take down African American kids on Jim Crow principle. The young men hassled in Wrestle are several members of the wrestling team at Huntington’s J. O. Johnson High School. But that’s not the only problem keeping coach Chris Scribner (white, mid-to-late 30s, near-military haircut) awake at night. Scribner’s long-range task is to prepare as many of his team as possible to qualify for Alabama’s state championship, a job he takes seriously. But there’s a lot on his plate: one powerful-looking teen is so distracted by imminent fatherhood that he can’t focus; another with attention-deficit disorder refuses to take his meds and impulsively makes up doomed wrestling holds; and a boy undergoing a growth spurt is gaining pounds along with height and mass, forcing him to sweat off water weight to stay in his division. Scribner is seen doing all of the cajoling, berating, and inspiring one would expect from a coach trying to motivate, but he’s also forever putting out brush fires, including driving to his students’ homes when they don’t show up for practice, and negotiating with cops. Not surprisingly, the outcome here is not a fairy-tale ending, but rather qualified success: real life, in other words. Extras include deleted scenes and an interview with the filmmakers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)