Boogie

Director: Eddie Huang

Writer: Eddie Huang (seriously this guy is dope)

Starring: Taylor Takahashi, Pamelym Chee, Taylour Paige, Pop Smoke (my sister says his music is good)

Reason for watching: New release plus I love sports movies

Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing

***

“They’re playing basketball/We love that basketball.” Man, I love basketball movies so much. Honestly, there is not a single basketball movie I’ve seen that I don’t at least kind of like. Hoosiers? Seen it. I love that assistant coach’s arc. Coach Carter? Seen it. I love Samuel L. Jackson and this movie has the best cinematography and actual sports scenes. The Way Back? I liked it. It was the last movie I saw in theaters right before the pandemic hit; Batfleck does a good job. (My editing software didn’t autocorrect Batfleck by the way. My gosh, I love the internet.) So an interesting basketball movie comes out. Yeah, I’m gonna go see it.

Boogie is about a high schooler senior of the same name (Taylor Takahashi) who is trying to get a college basketball scholarship so he can get to the NBA or get an education. He’s got to fight through struggles with a girlfriend (Taylour Paige) and trying to beat his rival Monk (Pop Smoke) and overcome his constantly fighting parents. He really has the odds stacked against him, but through his perseverance and talents he comes through on top.

Emotionally, I’m very invested in Boogie’s character arc and his struggles. You can tell right away that he’s trying to make it out of a bad situation and there is pressure riding on him. There is no question about his talents on the court. In-game scenes make it clear he has talent. But what he does with it is what drives the plot of this movie. There are opportunities he has to make money off his talents that he is not sold on because of college basketball dreams. But with his family being in a financial pickle, the choice becomes much more difficult.

The movie falls off towards the end as the climactic basketball scene when the cinematography devolves into poorly lit highlight films of made shots and buckets. While the actual basketball itself is not the centerpiece of the story if that final scene had been a little better this movie could have been a contender for best movie in quarter one of 2021. That theme of struggle could have tied into the final game and tied everything up with a nice bow, but the movie falls just short of being something great.

7/10

Until I see another one