Hoop Dreams (1994)

Directed by: Steve James

*****

Documentaries have a tendency of trying to prove a point rather than telling a story. They'll use a collection of events or circumstances pieced together and often times they'll be persuasive, compelling and effective but very rarely are they entertaining. Hoop Dreams does one thing perfectly and its enough to sustain itself as a great movie and that is tell a story.

The film chronicles the life of two Chicago kids with dreams of playing in the NBA. What pushes things forward is that they aren't pipe dreams. Arthur Agee and William Gates are both recruited by St. Josephs High School and declared by the Around the Horn of that time period as rising stars with Isiah Thomas potential. The movie is not about basketball, it doesn't tell a story about how basketball shapes your life the way average movies like Love and Basketball do. It tells the story about how life shapes the kind of person and by extension the kind of player that the kids become. Oddly enough, this story told as a narrative is probably pretty cheesy and cliche... just another sports movie.

Hoops Dreams spans over the course of about five years, starting with Arthur and William being recruited for high schools and ending just prior to their going off to college. This, to me, allows the movie to flow realistically and uninfluenced. I have a hard time believing people's actions in documentaries when I know that they know there's a camera in their face. Even if they behave differently, or answer a question in class when they wouldn't have otherwise done so, I know that their dreams and their intentions are genuine. I'm not watching an adult Arthur or William remembering the times when he wanted to be an NBA star. I'm watching him as he's growing up with those hoop dreams.

While I commend this film for telling a story, I also recognize that part of what makes it work is that there's no real beginning, middle and end. There's never a major focus on any one conflict. While William's knee injury may have changed things significantly for him as a player... the movie continues to understand that its not about him as a player, but about him as a person. When Arthur's father leaves the movie understands that its not just about his family but its about his life as a player with big dreams. All the elements combine into a smart and powerful story. Its not a combination of frightening stats about the unlikelihood of making it to the NBA or drugs and violence in inner city Chicago and how it effects innocent families. Its just a story about two people trying to get what they want most out of life.

Ebert calls this the best movie of the 90s. I don't, but I do call it the best documentary or the 90s, possibly the best documentary I've ever seen and truly a great, great movie.