One Paragraph Movie Review: Hoop Dreams

Two hundred and thirty-fifth film: Hoop Dreams, a basketball documentary from 1994, possibly the only time I was ever interested in basketball before now. I bloody love a documentary, and this is an extremely good one that follows two prodigiously talented high school basketball players from low-income Chicago families over five years. The American high school and college sport system kind of freaks me out, and this is about watching two normal kids trying to stay normal when they’re being recruited, rejected, applauded, and expected to carry the whole families’ hopes and disappointments across the court. This has everything a documentary should — a proper, deep sense of its subjects’ lives, influences, and aspirations without sugar-coating or indulging the story or its characters, highs, lows, surprises, and with no pre-conceived or heavy-handed message beyond ‘nothing is predictable’. God, what a great movie. Four full brass band cheering sections out of five.