Saturday, December 26, 2020

Hoop Dreams (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
Directed by Steve James.

This documentary follows its young subjects from eighth grade up through high school graduation, and it's captivating throughout. We see the boys wrestle with grades, school tuition costs, losing parents, becoming parents, losing friends, recovering from injuries, and more, all while trying to play their way into a basketball scholarship at a good school. It's impossible not to root for these kids as you see all the expectations placed on them not only by themselves but by their family members, many of whom had dreams of basketball fame themselves and now hope to see those dreams lived out through someone else. And it definitely gives us a glance into the system that keeps young people feeling trapped -- for both these kids, a basketball scholarship feels like the only chance they have of "getting out" and getting a life they want. It's a powerful and thoughtful film.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hoop Dreams > Dog Tooth
Hoop Dreams < My Name Is Joe
Hoop Dreams > A Doll's House
Hoop Dreams > The Happening
Hoop Dreams > The Last Metro
Hoop Dreams > Re-Animator
Hoop Dreams > Hawking
Hoop Dreams > Crocodile Dundee
Hoop Dreams > Barton Fink
Hoop Dreams > Whip It
Hoop Dreams > The Black Cat
Hoop Dreams < Chronicle
Final spot: #822 out of 3280, or 75%.

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