The Basketball Diaries
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Movie Reviews of The Basketball Diaries
Movie Review: I felt dazed, like I just came out of a 4 hour movie I didn't understand
Summary: 4 Stars
Shortly before he died of a drug overdose River Phoenix was asked what he was going to do next. He took a dog eared copy of The Basketball Diaries out of his pocket and said he wanted to play Jim Carroll. The Basketball Diaries project did get made, except with Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Phoenix. At the risk of being typecast River was set to follow that by playing the poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. DiCaprio picked up that role as well. The Basketball Diaries turned out pretty well for Leo, and was also a good break for Mark Wahlberg. There was however one unintended consequence: the students at Columbine copied not only DeCaprio's black trench coat, but also his violent fantasy of shooting up the school.
Copy cat killers are a large problem for film makers. Oliver Stone tried to make a statement about violence and how it was glorified in movies and the news media with Natural Born Killers. Result: Copy cats. Seems like Stone fell right into his own trap (Juliette Lewis is in Basketball Diaries and Natural Born Killers, by the way). Take Taxi Driver as another example of what can go dreadfully wrong.
I don't have any answers but am just pointing out the pitfalls for an artist who tries to address serious social issues with a very powerful and seductive medium. The Basketball Diaries also had to be careful not to glorify heroin. It kind of did in the first part, but then it tried to make up for it in the second part by showing a lot of puking and screaming--which is good as a cautionary tale, but it doesn't necessarily make for the best feel good movie of the summer.
On the other hand, I also feel that the book that Jim Carroll wrote was misrepresented by the movie. Stephen Lang turned down the part of Swifty the basketball coach that went to Bruno Kirby because he felt the book was misrepresented. But that's Hollywood for ya. They made it into much more of a standard cliche plot, a cautionary tale, more like an after school special.
Still, there was a lot to like about this movie, and the Jim Carroll story is quite a compelling one. Though at a young and tender age he was a petty criminal, heroin addict, and prostituted himself to support his drug habit, he managed to turn it around and become a successful poet, author, and rock musician. Carroll was also a high school basketball star, which can't be easy when your double life is a junkie. He also had a cameo in The Basketball Diaries playing, what else? a junkie. So, add acting to his already impressive resume. Also, though they tinkered with the book somewhat, there is plenty of verbage lifted directly from it, and his prose style always lifts the material above the mundane.
Jim Carroll: And it's good that there is rain. It clears the month of your sorry rainbow expressions, and it clears the streets of the silent armies... so we can dance.
The basketball scenes are exhilarating, as are all the early scenes before the negative effects of addiction take hold. Besides a great performance by DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg also acquits himself well, as do Michael Imperioli and James Madio. Imperioli plays Bobby, a basketball star buddy of Carroll's who is dying of leukemia. Madio plays Pedro, who although too short to play on the basketball team, is nevertheless kind of the team mascot and a member of the gang.
Music plays a vital role in the film, and the song "People Who Died" is especially effective since Carroll wrote and performed it, and some of the people in the lyrics, like Bobby, for instance are the ones in the movie, and Carroll's own real life. Also great are Patti Smith's "Dancing Backwards," "Riders of the Storm" by The Doors, and the musical high point for me, "Down by the Water" by PJ Harvey. Her album, To Bring You My Love, had just come out in 1995, the year the film was released, and though the song didn't yet exist at the time period the movie was supposed to be in, it nevertheless managed to capture the feeling.
The Basketball Diaries
Living at the Movies (Poets, Penguin)
Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries: 1971-1973
The Book of Nods
Catholic Boy
Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection
To Bring You My Love
Boogie Nights
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Total Eclipse
Jim Carroll: I felt dazed, like I just came out of a 4 hour movie I didn't understand.
Raw, Harrowing Account
Summary: 4 Stars As a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, I was excited to watch this movie for the first time. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed it immensely. The Basketball Diaries is a raw, harrowing account of young man's descent into heroin addiction. It's dark, disturbing, and painfully hard to stomach at times. It's another brilliant example that Leonardo DiCaprio can play so many more roles that sweet, love-struck boy from Titanic.
For the first thirty minutes, I had trouble understanding where this movie was headed. A bunch of Catholic school teenagers stalk the streets of Manhattan, creating small mischief. They appear harmless, headed in the direction of numerous basketball scholarships. Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Jim, writes stunningly beautiful poetry. However, things eventually go downhill. Through a series of events I won't spoil, Jim and his friends begin experimenting with drugs.
Everything changes. This seemingly light tale commences into a constant battle for another taste. It's hard to watch characters fall so hard. The Basketball Diaries turns into an unbelievably bleak story of what these chemicals can really do to somebody. The withdrawal scenes in this movie are some of the best I've ever watched. I was cringing for minutes at a time. I found this movie incredibly moving and engaging. However, the ending seemed a little rushed. The transition from drug user to clean, completely changed individual didn't come off realistically enough to me. Leonardo DiCaprio's character was so obsessed with the needle I had trouble believing his somewhat quick recovery. That being said, the rest of this movie makes up for it.
As a side note, I also thought Mark Wahlberg did a great job with his smaller part. He's a great actor, and always entertaining to watch.
Check it out!
Movie Review: The Basketball Diaries: Inspiring in a way
Summary: 4 Stars
Leornardo Di Caprio plays Jim Carrol in this movie. He's young,famous and a great basktellball player. Between things, he writes a book daily or whenever he can. He suffers from depression when his best friend dies of cancer. Then on, he adopts drugs and ruins his high school life.
The movie is quick and the screenplay is hard hitting and incredibly entertaining. The most gulp inducing scene in the film features Jim crying outside his mom's appartment before getting arrested. It always strikes me how Di Caprio has this superhuman side to him. He can undertake any role you throw at him. The end of this movie was heartening and inspiring in a way.
My other favourite Leonardo Di Capro films are Aviator (absolute 5 starrer) Catch Me If You Can (of course you've seen it) and Titanic(overrated? hell no) He also happens to be my favourite actor besides Tom Hanks.
Overall rating for Basketball Diaries,7/10
Movie Review: Engrossing
Summary: 4 Stars
I had no idea what this film was about when I picked it up at block buster the other day. It was free for gold members, which I happen to be. Dicaprio and Ernie Hudson were in so I said, why not.
I started watching the film and I thought, oh, this is a kids movie. The next thing I knew, Dicaprio was snorting cocaine with a hot chick who promised him the coke would make him superman in bed.
And that's when the film grabbed me because I knew then that the kid was going to end up hooked. The film then depicts just how this happened to a promising young basketball player, who made way to many bad decisions in his formative years.
Check this one out.
Movie Review: The only Leonardo Decapula movie worth seeing.
Summary: 4 Stars
I reallllllly can't stand Leonardo he couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. Time and again I found myself being forced to watch the trite turned out by this no talent,but now I can say this guy has something or had something this is an earlier film before he blew up into the hollywood monstrosity. This one and only this one is worth seeing,But that may have more to do with the story direction and script than Leo.Good Flick!