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The Basketball Diaries (film)

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4.3/5
Amazon

Genre
  
Biography, Crime, Drama

Screenplay
  
Bryan Goluboff

Country
  
United States

7.3/10
IMDb


Director
  
Story by
  
Duration
  

Language
  
English

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie poster
Release date
  
April 21, 1995 (1995-04-21)

Writer
  
Jim Carroll (novel), Bryan Goluboff (screenplay)

Genres
  
Drama, Teen film, Biographical film, Film adaptation, Crime Fiction, Indie film, Sports, Coming of age

Cast
  
(Jim Carroll), (Jim's Mother), (Pedro), (Mickey), (Swifty), (Neutron)

Similar movies
  
Southpaw
,
It Follows
,
The Departed
,
Foxcatcher
,
Cars
,
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Tagline
  
The true story of the death of innocence and the birth of an artist.

The basketball diaries 1995 official trailer leonardo dicaprio movie hd


Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) is consumed by his life as a high school basketball star. Pressured by a wicked coach (Bruno Kirby) and a concerned mother (Lorraine Bracco), Jim develops an appetite for heroin. Soon, the mean streets of New York City have replaced the basketball court as his main destination. Jim and his friends scrounge, steal and prostitute themselves to score drugs. Jims only chance to escape addiction may be Reggie (Ernie Hudson), a neighborhood friend and hoops companion.

Contents

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American drama film directed by Scott Kalvert, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, James Madio, and Mark Wahlberg from the non-fiction work of the same name. The film centers on Jim Carroll (DiCaprio), a promising teenage basketball player who develops an addiction to heroin with his misguided friends.

The film was shot in New York City.

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

Plot

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

The film is an adaptation of poet and memoirist Jim Carrolls (Leonardo DiCaprio) juvenile diaries chronicling his kaleidoscopic free-fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jims life centers on 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 appetite for cocaine and heroin all begin to encroach on young Jims dream of becoming a basketball star.

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mothers mounting concern for her son. He cannot 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, which ultimately ends with Jims incarceration in Rikers Island. After months in prison, he leaves and later does a talk show about his drug life, after turning down free drugs from his old friend, Pedro.

The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

The film is set in the early 1990s, while Carrolls actual book recounts experiences from growing up in the 1960s. Jim started out as a practice basketball player, and moved on to write The Basketball Diaries.

Cast

  • Leonardo DiCaprio as Jim Carroll
  • Lorraine Bracco as Mrs. Carroll
  • Marilyn Sokol as Chanting Woman
  • James Madio as Pedro
  • Patrick McGaw as Neutron
  • Mark Wahlberg as Mickey
  • Roy Cooper as Father McNulty
  • Bruno Kirby as Swifty
  • Alexander Chaplin as Bobo
  • Juliette Lewis as Diane Moody
  • Michael Imperioli as Bobby
  • Michael Rapaport as Skinhead
  • Ernie Hudson as Reggie
  • Manny Alfaro as Manny
  • Cynthia Daniel as Winkie
  • Brittany Daniel as Blinkie
  • Jim Carroll as Frankie Pinewater, Credited as James Dennis Carroll
  • Reception

    The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

    The film currently holds a 46% "Rotten" rating at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave two stars out of four, concluding, "At the end, Jim is seen going in through a "stage door," and then we hear him telling the story of his descent and recovery. We cant tell if this is supposed to be genuine testimony or a performance. Thats the problem with the whole movie." Many critics also praised Wahlbergs performance.

    Lawsuits

    The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

    After the 1997 Heath High School shooting, activist and disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson brought this film into a $33 million lawsuit in 1999 claiming that the films plot (along with two internet pornography sites, several computer game companies, and makers and distributors of the 1994 film Natural Born Killers) caused the 14-year-old Michael Carneal to shoot members of a prayer group. The case was dismissed in 2001.

    The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes

    The same year, the film became controversial in the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre and the Heath High School shooting, when critics noted similarities between these shooting attacks and a fantasy sequence in the film in which the protagonist wears a black trenchcoat and shoots six classmates in his school classroom. The film has been specifically named in lawsuits brought by the relatives of murder victims.

    Similar Movies

    The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes Leonardo DiCaprio Basketball Diaries

    Trainspotting (1996). Requiem for a Dream (2000). Leonardo DiCaprio appears in The Basketball Diaries and This Boys Life. Christiane F (1981). The Panic in Needle Park (1971).

    Soundtrack

    The Basketball Diaries (film) movie scenes The Basketball Diaries 1995

    The Basketball Diaries soundtrack was released in 1995 by PolyGram to accompany the film, featuring songs from Pearl Jam and PJ Harvey. AllMusic rated it three stars out of five.

    References

    The Basketball Diaries (film) Wikipedia
    The Basketball Diaries (film) IMDbThe Basketball Diaries (film) Rotten TomatoesThe Basketball Diaries (film) Roger EbertThe Basketball Diaries (film) Amazon.comThe Basketball Diaries (film) themoviedb.org