The scrappy ragtag team, the gruff but kind coach, the against-the-odds triumph — sports dramas rarely veer far from a basic template. It’s no surprise when the story’s athletes accomplish their unlikely goal; it’s how the director leads us there that matters. In the case of The Boys in the Boat, a telling of true events that can feel overly cautious in its admiring distance, the surprises lie in small moments and grace notes.

At the helm for his ninth feature, George Clooney follows the intimate coming-of-age tale The Tender Bar with a return to the realm of history. He puts a subdued spin on the story of unlikely Olympians — and generally avoids the stodginess of The Monuments Men. The University of Washington Huskies were working-class college kids in the depths of the Great Depression who became contenders in the rarefied realm of competitive rowing, going all the...