TIFF 2026 Review: Smudge the Blades

During his first practice with the ragtag U18 Indigenous hockey team, the Treaty 6 Blades, Zamboni driver-turned-coach Willie Gladue (played by director and co-writer Cody Lightning) tells his new team that “There’s more to life than hockey.” He wants his team to not worry too much and to embrace the fun of the game, especially after they’ve been booted out of the Edmonton city league and abandoned by their former coach, NHL tough guy Bud Bradshaw (Ed Helms). But the team dismisses his nice guy act and ignores his lasse faire coaching style. Willie thinks the kids don’t get it, but it’s Willie who doesn’t get it. For these kids, who come from a reserve north of Edmonton and all deal with a variety of issues on and off the reserve, hockey is truly all that matters. It’s what they live for. Over the course of Smudge the Blades, Lightning’s winning new underdog sports dramedy, Willie has to learn that “It’ll never get better than this.”

Playing in a tried and true subgenre, and even namechecking The Mighty Ducks (1992) during the climactic locker room speech, Smudge the Blades leans into the conventions of the underdog sports flick. We start during the game that causes the Blades to be booted from the league and to lose their coach. The team then picks themselves back up, Willie joins as new coach, and they play their way through the rough-and-tumble northern country league against rowdy teams from other reserves and openly racist white teams who pay off the refs to let them win. The movie’s structure follows the genre trajectory, from early pitfalls to later triumphs and finally to the big game where they get a chance for glory and to defeat their rivals who won last time they met.

We also meet the motley members of the team, including Jaycee (Paulina Alexis), the one girl on the team; Damon (River Rayne Thomas), the quiet enforcer; Broxy (Elijah James Lee Moar), the feisty short goalie; and Taran (Isaiah Kakepetum), the star player who has a real chance to go pro. Everyone has some issues at home to contend with: Jaycee has a drunken mom who endangers her younger sisters; Broxy has a drinking problem himself; Damon has an abusive and estranged dad; Taran’s the only one who seems to have all the support in the world from his mom, Channelle (Jana Schmeiding), but even he’s held down by the weight of her expectations, which might be sapping the love of the game for him.

Every underdog sports movie has the kids needing to overcome issues at home in order to excel on the ice, so Smudge the Blades isn’t breaking new ground with its focus on domestic dysfunction within the Indigenous community. But it’s hardly a Disney flick. Issues aren’t easily paved over here. Jaycee’s mom doesn’t suddenly stop drinking to show up for her and the team, for instance, nor does Broxy stop filling his water bottle with liquor. Success on the ice won’t solve what ails these kids at home, which makes the game all the more meaningful. Lightning understands this fact so he doesn’t paper over the gritty and grim, although make no mistake, Smudge the Blades is funny too. The kids are always making light of situations, getting into ridiculous hijinks at reserve parties, and goading the other teams into fights. It’s just that we don’t get sitcom versions of the real problems these kids face: poverty, addiction, racism. 

Hockey is an escape for these kids. It’s also an escape for Willie, even if he might not admit it. Living off the short-lived success of his past as a minor league hockey player and running away from some domestic troubles of his own, Willie thinks he’s made peace with his low lot in life, but he’s lying to himself. Lightning is a charismatic leading man. There’s a bit of John Candy in Cool Runnings (1993) to his coach, as he’s a lovable, slightly disreputable loser with a genuine heart. But Lightning also gives Willie a bit more of a checkered past and questionable ambitions than other underdog sports movie coaches. He’s not Emilio Estevez’s lawyer in The Mighty Ducks, a man with ambitions who has to reorient them to learn what truly matters in life. No, Willie initially offers to coach the team cause he wants to romance Taran’s mom, Chanelle. He hits up the bar before daytime games. He’s a deadbeat—a funny guy, but an undeniable loser.

Smudge the Blades balances the focus between Willie and the kids for the most part, although it tilts a bit more towards Willie simply because Lightning is the more capable performer. The kids were all cast first for their hockey skills, second for their acting—Lightning thought it would be easier to teach a hockey player to act than an actor to play convincing hockey, which stands to reason. And their skill shows in the game scenes, which are crisp and convincingly shot, avoiding the kind of fakery typical of movies of this sort which is required to paper over the lack of skill of the actors. No, we see these actual players on the ice, playing the games, and Lightning and his cinematographer Liam Mitchell have fun shooting the speed and intensity of the games. In fact, the opening hockey game where the Blades are booted from the league is filmed with such grit that it almost acts as a bait-and-switch, making you think you’re getting an intense, no-holds-barred hockey expose when you’re actually getting a funny, inspirational underdog story.

Though, the thing is, you’re actually getting both with Smudge the Blades: the conventional underdog sports flick and the gritty look at life on the rez, both on and off the ice. It’s effective, fun, and authentic, even in its most cliched moments. It has the potential to be a hit, provided its distributor finds it the audience it deserves.

7 out of 10

Smudge the Blades (2026, Canada)

Directed by Cody Lightning; written by Cody Lightning and Samuel Miller; starring Cody Lightning, Jana Schmiedling, Paulina Alexis, Treycen Wuttunee, Isaiah Kakepetum, River Rayne Thomas, Elijah James Lee Moar, Ezekiel Mekanak, David McNally, Ed Helms.

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