Sports are one of the prime frameworks upon which to build a cinematic story.  Sports, at their core, are pure expressions of the human struggle to improve oneself and overcome struggles born from both within and without.  They’re simple to understand but complicated to master, but just as often, the true answer is for a protagonist to master themselves before they can master the sport.  

The national winter sport of Canada is hockey, and as such it makes sense that if an 80s brat pack sports drama about hockey is going to be remade, that it would be remade here.  Youngblood tells the story of a young, hotheaded, hotshot hockey player who is on his last shot.  The setup is a little cliche, but the execution is sincere, and for a story like this that might just be enough. 

Dean Youngblood (Ashton James) is our hero. At a tender age his mother passed away, leaving him and his brother Kelly (Emidio Lopes) in the care of their father, Blane (Blair Underwood).  Blane is a hockey player who missed his shot, not because he wasn’t great but because at every turn he was blocked because of the colour of his skin.

Blane is, in a word, angry.  The career that never materialized and the loss of his wife leave him reeling, and now Dean has inherited that rage.  The story proper opens with him assaulting another player on the ice after a racist remark, resulting in a year long suspension and a ruined reputation. He gets his last shot courtesy of a his old coach, who pulls some strings to get him a tryout with the Hamilton Mustangs, a team lacking a power forward but headed to a playoff berth.  

Once he is on the team he meets three people who will help change him: team captain Denis Sutton (Henri Richer-Picard), another highly skilled player destined for the big leagues; Coach Murray Chadwick (Shawn Doyle), a talented coach with a tainted past of his own, and Jessie (Alexandra McDonald), a talented and hard working goalie looking for her own shot at going pro, who shares an instant attraction with Dean but also happens to be the coach’s daughter.  

To get this out of the way, yes, there are going to be story beats here that you have seen before.  Youngblood doesn’t reinvent the wheel plot wise, but what it does do is add much needed depth to both Dean as a character and the institution of hockey as an organization of people.  

Dean is a self centred young man fuelled by the knowledge that he’s a great player, but needs to recognize that he needs to be one of twenty as much as he is one in a million. He’s also a young man with generational trauma inherited from his father. James is able to make both the ourbursts and the quiet self loathing of that apparent in both overt and subtle ways, and the journey Dean takes to resolve this is compelling to watch as a result.  

Blair Underwood also brings some weight to the role of Dean’s father, the kind of man that is pressing his son to achieve what he could not. Underwood’s Blane is more overt with his anger and abusive tendencies, but when the time comes for the reconciliation of who Dean is instead of who he wants Dean to be, he also delivers a stirring moment. 

As stated, Youngblood doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but writer Charles Officer (who sadly passed away before the film went into production) was a former professional hockey player and his script brings authenticity to the locker room scenes especially.  In a nice touch, this team of young men aren’t rowdy trouble makers but a group of young professionals, all keen on their success as a team.  

Hubert Davis, who took over the director’s chair when Officer passed away, along with cinematographer Stuart James Cameron, are able to do quite a lot with just a little, bringing the camera on the ice in such a way that the film feels skillful, dynamic, and interesting despite some budgetary limitations present if you know what to look for. 

In the end Dean is able to self actualize and win the day. That’s not a spoiler, it’s just that kind of movie.  It’s a little cliche, but it’s also well shot, features a great central performance, and hits just the right level of sincerity to succeed. 

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Youngblood, In Cinemas Now