Megan Rapinoe is known as one of the greatest soccer/ football players in the world. Not female soccer players, one of the best players. Period. Rapinoe the documentary charts the course of the player’s life and career, from her days growing up in the conservative small town of Redding, California, to winning multiple Football World Cups.

Director Rebeca Huntt shot on celluloid which gives the film a very realistic, almost gritty quality. It feels like we’re sitting in the room with Rapinoe and she’s talking to us, the audience. This directorial choice makes the film feel more personal and intimate.

The linear format serves Rapinoe well. We get important glimpses into the footballer’s early life, a bustling family — she’s one of seven children — that was accidentally progressive despite the conservative world they were living in. As the story continues, we see her growing as a player, and becoming the champion she is now known as. 

I didn’t know Rapinoe has a twin, Rachel. Both took to football like ducks to water, following in their older brother, Brian’s footsteps. As children, Rachel was very much the go-getter, with Megan leaning on her to lead the way. Despite being a showman and naturally talented, Megan wasn't comfortable as herself. The film shares home video footage of Megan on prom night, in an orange dress and bob, a nerdy boy on her arm. As present-day Megan says, she should have been going to prom with the girl in the orange dress.

As the twins got older, they became more competitive. Despite Rachel and Megan not looking exactly alike, in video footage of their soccer matches, it’s hard to tell them apart. They’re both quick, exacting on the ball, and precise in their shots on goal.

I was fascinated by the relationship between the twins. But Rapinoe’s focus is on soccer and that's what the bulk of the film is about. Megan in the national team, winning the World Cup, winning gold at the 2012 Olympics. And then returning to the USA to severely underfunded football facilities for the women’s game.

As a WIFT member, I got to attend a talk with Rapinoe and Huntt to hear more about the filmmaking process. Huntt mentioned how she and the crew would have to sneak into matches to get close-up shots of Rapinoe on the field, as well as some of her match-winning goals. The opening scene, which looks like it was shot for the film, instead of utilizing TV footage, is well-served by this technique. It’s impactful and suspenseful. Worth the film crew being chased by security, I’d say. 

Alongside showing heart-thumping clips of football wins, Rapinoe’s second Act builds towards Megan’s biggest goal — equal pay for all footballers in the USA. It’s a long, painful, belittling fight, and careers are on the line. The highs of the football scenes had the audience on the edge of our seats, but it’s the declaration of the women winning their equal pay fight that won applause at the premiere I attended.

I love sports films and documentaries, especially the stories of women athletes. They face so much adversity, so few resources. They truly have to work ten times harder than their male counterparts — the USA women’s soccer team have won four World Cups to earn barely anything compared to their male counterparts who have won zero. Ridiculous.

While Rapinoe is the story of an extraordinary player, the documentary follows a very standard structure. I don’t think director Rebeca Huntt had to do anything too different when her subject is obviously a star. But I did find some of the techniques a bit too old-school; the extreme close-ups during emotional moments, the long takes of solemn faces to punctuate dramatic revelations. Some of it felt melodramatic when sharing the stories of real people.

Yet, at the talk I attended, Huntt spoke about deliberately choosing to shoot those close-ups. She spoke about being inspired by other documentaries, and how the close-ups humanized the subjects of those stories. Interestingly, Huntt said she found the way sports talks about athletes to be dehumanizing, so she felt compelled to disrupt that narrative with her shot choices. I feel I have a new appreciation of the film now. 

It was interesting to hear Rapinoe talk about dissociating from difficult moments. She credits it with being able to play at the top level, and being her best, despite the noise around her. However, once she starts therapy, the emotions begin to overwhelm her and her performance suffers. I wish the documentary had taken a moment to unpack that. I worry that people will take away the wrong message — that it’s better not to go to therapy and keep disassociating from reality. I don’t think that’s what the film was trying to say but that’s how it came across.

My other criticism is more personal. Since we, the Stereo Geeks, are twins, I was very interested in Megan and Rachel’s twinship. I wanted to know more about their competitiveness, which is so unlike Mon and me. I also wanted to know how they felt about being two sides of the  same coin — both footballers, both gay. Being together and being apart. We get parts of that but from the second Act onwards, Rachel disappears. And I struggled with that. How did Megan’s rising fame impact her twin? How did Rachel handle the ludicrous backlash to Megan standing with the Black Lives Matter movement? What has Rachel been doing since college? I want to know what happened with her and we get nothing more, aside from a throwaway line near the end of the film about how Megan and Rachel are always in each other’s lives. It would have been nice to see that, instead of being told that. 

The audience at the world premiere screening of Rapinoe was focused entirely on the screen. However, when the documentary shared clips of right-wingers criticizing Rapinoe for kneeling during the USA national anthem, there were plenty of annoyed sighs. 

And then Ben Shapiro showed up on screen and the lady next to me swore quietly. I found myself exclaiming along, “What a loser!” To which my neighbour went, “He’s such a little sh*t.” We all agree, ma’am. We all agree. 

Rapinoe was high on my list of films to watch at the Toronto International Film Festival 2026 and it’s great that WIFT organized for members to attend the world premiere as well as the talk.

Rapinoe is a succinct documentary that captures the highs and lows of an athletic career, and it doesn’t shy away from tough subjects. But it knows to keep the focus on what matters most — fighting for equality no matter how hard it gets.

The film clearly highlights how far women’s football has come in the USA, but also how much work is still left for the world to do. We are nowhere near parity in terms of equal pay for players of different genders. There are still so many institutional discriminatory practices that people have no choice but to fight against. Instead of focusing on building their skills, these players have to juggle all these other activities. It makes me angry but also, we’ve seen one group win this fight. And that’s the point — it’s a long, hard fight, but stopping isn’t an option.

Stay tuned for more reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival 2026.