‘Only the Brave’ paints timely portrait

As if on cue, “Only the Brave” — a deeply moving drama about firefighters — arrives in theaters, just as the catastrophic wildfires in Northern California seem to be winding down.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer, the film is based on a GQ story about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite crew of firefighters who experienced a harrowing tragedy in Yarnell, Ariz., in 2013. If that event doesn’t ring a bell, I won’t reveal precisely what happened. Although it seems only fair to warn audiences that the outcome isn’t a happy one.

Still, there’s plenty of joy in this story, which starts out like an underdog sports movie. The firefighting crew in Prescott, Arizona, led by the brooding, rugged Eric Marsh ( Josh Brolin), is immensely capable. But because they haven’t yet been certified for top-tier “hotshot” status, they’re relegated to mopping up the remnants of fires that other, more specialized teams have attacked at the front lines.

Eric is a strategic genius when it comes to fire-suppression tactics that look, to the untrained eye, like random destruction. He even personalizes blazes, referring to one as a “b——” and asking, of another far-off conflagration, “What are you up to?” Although Eric figures out the answer to that rhetorical question, he has no authority to put his plan into motion. When a snobby, dismissive hotshot team takes over and bungles the operation, the collateral damage is a whole town.

Much of “Only the Brave” focuses on the Prescott crew’s quest for elite status as emotionally significant subplots bubble up around the edges.

For all the action and emotion, “Only the Brave” is also surprisingly informative for anyone unacquainted with the art of fighting fire.