Possibly the best ever example of fact being more fascinating than fiction. It follows the high school careers of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two kids from Chicago recruited by St. Joe’s–Isiah Thomas’s high school. Everything is shown year-by-year and it provides a lot of incite about the cutthroat nature of top-tier high school basketball, life in the projects at the time, and the ups and downs of life period. That was sort of a bold statement, but it’s a bold film. Hoop Dreams is powerful in the way that, more than a decade after the fact, it can make you feel the pain and joy of these kids and their families.
It was released in 1994 and landed at the top of a lot of critics’ and film associations’ best-film lists that year. However, it wasn’t nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. David Letterman summed the situation up best in a “Top Ten Signs the Movie You are Watching Will Not Win an Academy Award”: “It’s a beautifully made documentary about two boys in the inner city trying to realize their dream of playing professional basketball.” If you are even slightly interested in basketball, this is a must-see. If you like documentaries, this is a must-see. If you want to see a good movie, this is a must-see. And so on and so on.
October 14, 2007