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The Basketball Diaries

6.8

20,935

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Original title

The Basketball Diaries

Year

1995

Running time

102 min.

Country

United States

Director

Scott Kalvert

Screenwriter

Brian Goluboff. Autobiography: Jim Carroll

Cast

Music

Graeme Revell

Cinematography

David Phillips

Producer

New Line Cinema, Island Pictures

Genre

Drama | Biography. Teen/coming-of-age. Drugs. Prostitution. Independent Film (US)

Synopsis

Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity.

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Critics' reviews

"It's not boring to watch, but in the end it's too lame and too tame"

Jay Carr: Boston Globe
"You leave The Basketball Diaries believing that Leonardo DiCaprio can do anything."

Peter Travers: Rolling Stone
"[It] is romanticizing the ultimate effects of drug use. It is an accomplishment of sorts to be repellent and glamorizing at the same time, but it is the only accomplishment to which this unfortunate film can lay claim."

Kenneth Turan: Los Angeles Times
"If there's anything more boring than a juicy parable with a moral at the end, it's the moral without the parable (...) DiCaprio does what he can with the part (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"A roll call of sordid episodes and nasty pranks (...) The star shines, but the movie is hard to watch."

Janet Maslin: The New York Times
s a tough, intense, wrenching picture about drugs and growing up and surviving, driven by a fierce, skinless performance by its star, Leonardo DiCaprio."

Hal Hinson: The Washington Post

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The Basketball Diaries

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