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The Basketball Diaries is the true story of Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) – gifted poet, talented basketball player, and hopeless addict.
Based on Jim Carroll’s own autobiographical novel, the film follows Carroll’s life from a young boy growing up in the Bronx with his friends at a strict Catholic boys’ school. In between stealing from the schools they play against, and getting up to the usual teen mayhem, the team also likes to get high. What starts as sniffing glue soon turns to alcohol, dope, coke and finally smack as a way of trying to get some excitement in their lives, and finally as a way of escaping the sad reality that they have become.
The Basketball Diaries is a true story and as such the end is a bit of an anticlimax, as it is in so many lives. There is none of the clever, surrealistic and nightmarish exploration of the junkie world that Irvine Welsh explored in Trainspotting. Nor does The Basketball Diaries depict drugs as chic cool. It shows the waste and the boredom of drug addiction, but does so without being heavy-handed or preachy. It offers no solutions, and gives no answers to any hard questions. And it is much better for this.
What this movie is most notable for, however, is the performances of its many talented young cast members. Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent in this movie, transforming from likeable truant to pathetic junkie to hardened reformer with full believability. Likewise excellent is Mark Wahlberg, who is excellent as Carroll’s best friend Mickey.
This is not a feel good movie. The ending is not uplifting or rewarding. It just is. This movie is about the journey, a recounting of a tale with few lessons to teach and only insights into the machinations of an artist. As such, this works very well as a character piece, and I highly recommend it in that vein.
Based on Jim Carroll’s own autobiographical novel, the film follows Carroll’s life from a young boy growing up in the Bronx with his friends at a strict Catholic boys’ school. In between stealing from the schools they play against, and getting up to the usual teen mayhem, the team also likes to get high. What starts as sniffing glue soon turns to alcohol, dope, coke and finally smack as a way of trying to get some excitement in their lives, and finally as a way of escaping the sad reality that they have become.
The Basketball Diaries is a true story and as such the end is a bit of an anticlimax, as it is in so many lives. There is none of the clever, surrealistic and nightmarish exploration of the junkie world that Irvine Welsh explored in Trainspotting. Nor does The Basketball Diaries depict drugs as chic cool. It shows the waste and the boredom of drug addiction, but does so without being heavy-handed or preachy. It offers no solutions, and gives no answers to any hard questions. And it is much better for this.
What this movie is most notable for, however, is the performances of its many talented young cast members. Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent in this movie, transforming from likeable truant to pathetic junkie to hardened reformer with full believability. Likewise excellent is Mark Wahlberg, who is excellent as Carroll’s best friend Mickey.
This is not a feel good movie. The ending is not uplifting or rewarding. It just is. This movie is about the journey, a recounting of a tale with few lessons to teach and only insights into the machinations of an artist. As such, this works very well as a character piece, and I highly recommend it in that vein.
