Curl Power: These Young Athletes Have the Stones

By Chris Knight

Rating: A

“Teenagers are weird,” says one of the young subjects of the documentary Curl Power. Curlers are too. Both groups are little understood by outsiders, who also tend to think the life of a member is easier than actually is.

Brooklyn, Hannah, Savannah, Amy and Ashley know better. They are teenagers and also curlers, and director Josephine Anderson captures all that is best and most confusing about both conditions.

The film starts on a somewhat typical note, as these high schoolers from Maple Ridge B.C. (just outside Vancouver) talk about their dreams of becoming Canadian National Curling Champions one day.

But the further we get into the film’s 85 minutes, the more we realize that this isn’t going to be a traditional sports doc, with an arc of competition leading to victory or defeat. In fact, it’s fair to say that by the midpoint of the movie, viewers probably won’t really care if they even see another end played.

It’s not that the games aren’t interesting. (And DP Claire Sanford certainly does a marvellous job of shooting them!) But there’s just so much else going on — school, university applications, boyfriends, depression, health issues, body issues, parents, etc.

It’s easy to feel confident on the ice, one of the girls notes. It’s a self-contained world, 15 by 150 feet, filled with 16 stones weighing in at about 700 pounds, grounded by strict rules and terminology.

But real life is bigger and far more complicated, and Anderson, who followed her subjects for three years, eavesdrops on moments of their thoughtful, tender realizations of what a wide, weird world it is. And how these friends will soon be heading their separate ways in it.

Their unfiltered comments show how fully the director has gained the trust of her subjects. The film’s respectful presentation proves how well deserved it was.

Curl Power. Directed by Josephine Anderson. With Brooklyn Aleksic, Hannah Smeed, Savannah Miley, Amy Wheatcroft and Ashley Dezura. In theatres January 24.