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The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Posted By: Efgrapha

Date: 12 Sep 2014 19:07:32

Very loosely based on the memoir of the same name, The Basketball Diaries transposes the late '60s adolescence of writer/artist Jim Carroll to some unspecified time period at least 15 years later, further confusing the timeframe with three decades of rock music, some by Carroll himself. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Catholic school chums are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but their friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) languishes in the hospital with leukemia. In-between typically boyish adventures, Jim scribbles in his notebook and experiments with sex and drugs. His group of friends begins to disintegrate after coach Swifty (Bruno Kirby) not only makes a pass at Jim, but also catches him and his pals using drugs on the court and kicks them off the team. Out of school and on the streets, Jim turns tricks, betrays friends, robs stores, and deals drugs to feed his heroin addiction. Not even the efforts of former addict Reggie (Ernie Hudson) can cure Jim. Mark Wahlberg appears as one of Jim's basketball and drug buddies, while Carroll himself makes a memorable cameo as an addict who describes the almost Catholic rituals of shooting heroin.

Synopsis by Brian J. Dillard, Allmovie.com

The best anti-drug movies are the ones that eschew sermons. Nothing turns off an audience faster than a film that becomes pedantic. However, when a production gets the message across through a story that lacks even a trace of artifice, its effectiveness is indisputable. Such is the case with The Basketball Diaries, film maker Scott Kalvert's updating of Jim Caroll's autobiographical novel. The tale related here isn't all that original, but the honest presentation lends impact to a wrenching scenario.

Jimmy Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a star basketball player on his New York City Catholic school team. Fellow roundballers Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) and Neutron (Patrick McGaw) and unofficial cheerleader Pedro (James Madio) are Jimmy's closest friends, and whenever trouble stalks one, it invariably affects them all. So, when the drug cycle starts, it quickly spreads to each of the four corners of the friendship. What begins as casual use first becomes a weekend habit, then an everyday obsession. Grades plummet, on-court performance becomes unreliable, and crime looms as the only means to pay for a seemingly-endless supply of uppers, downers, cocaine, and heroin.

There have been quite a few addiction movies, but most are surface melodramas, concerned with busting the bad guys or facilitating a Hollywood-style transformation from user to productive member of society. Films like with The Basketball Diaries, which paint a stark, ugly portrait of drug abuse, are rare. This is not the type of picture likely to draw big at the box office. Much of what's shown is simply too raw for audiences out for a couple hours' entertainment.

In Collard's This Boy's Life, Leonardo DiCaprio played a young man coming of age in the Pacific Northwest. Here, though his character undergoes a far different change, the actor's performance is equally on-target. Because it demands so much range, the role of Jimmy Carroll requires more effort, but DiCaprio doesn't miss a beat.

The decay of the individual always makes for powerful drama. Such was the case with Cyril Collard's Savage Nights, and it is no less true here. The teen years – an age of rebellion and uncertainty in the best of circumstances – can be devastating when an individual loses control. with The Basketball Diaries captures this with brutal effectiveness. Facile escapes are rejected, and the resolution is acceptable because we can believe it. In fact, that's the reason this film works as well as it does: credibility. You won't need many fingers to count the times when scenes ring false. By another name, call this Hoop Nightmares.

Review by James Berardinelli

IMDB 7,3/10 from 65 133 users
Wiki

Director: Scott Kalvert

Writers: Jim Carroll (novel), Bryan Goluboff (screenplay)

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, James Madio, Mark Wahlberg, Bruno Kirbyб Juliette Lewis, Michael Imperioli, Michael Rapaport and other