Murderball

Documentary filmmakers Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro take us inside the world of quad rugby (also known as “murderball”), an indoor sport played on a basketball court by quadriplegics in wheelchairs. The sport itself is fascinating, and the framing story about the U.S. and Canadian teams squaring off at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens is engrossing, but Shapiro and Rubin (who also serves as cinematographer) use the game mainly as a prism through which they view the players’ lives, discussing everything from eating pizza without hands to quadriplegic sex. Rubin and Shapiro focus on two particularly complex and interesting individuals—U.S. player Mark Zupan and Team Canada coach Joe Soares—but all of the men are striking examples of the indomitable human spirit.