SHOOTING STARS
US, 2023, 116 minutes, Colour.
Marquis Mookie Cooke, Wood Harris, Caleb McLaughlin, Avery S. Wills Jr, Kahlil Everage, Sterling Henderson, Dermot Mulroney, Natalie Paul.
Directed by Chris Robinson.
American audiences have a great admiration for basketball champion, LeBron James. And he is well known throughout the world by basketball fans – and this entertaining biography would open up a wider range of interest and fans.
This film is about LeBron James and his friends at school, the Fab Four, growing up in Oregon. The film is based on the book, Shooting Stars, by James in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning author, Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights) and the 2008 documentary, More than a Game. It is partly fictionalised.
The film focuses on the four friends emerging into their teenage years, all equal, different personalities, loving basketball, playing and bonding.
The issue arises of their being together in their high school years, their differences in height, abilities, putting them in different grades. However, whether to go to the local Catholic school where they could stay together – and, with negotiations, this is what happens.
The father of one of the boys, Dru Joyce (Wood Harris) is a solid and patient coach. However, a champion coach in his down days, played by Dermot Mulroney, is approached, sceptical, changed by seeing the play, encouraging the four even with his stern style.
At the end of the film, there is an epilogue giving information about what happened to each of the four in their successful careers. (James was not only successful in basketball but as a prolific film and television producer, including Space Jam: New Legacy.)
- A film for basketball lovers? American basketball fans?
- Audience knowledge of LeBron James, his talent, his career?
- The film based on his memoir, documentary film? His young days, pre-career?
- The Oregon settings? The friends, the Fab Four, their age, playing basketball, friends, school, growing together, the bonding?
- The four characters, treated as equals, Lebron James amongst them? The range of talent?
- James, the scenes at home, his relationship with his mother, growing up, his career?
- Dru Joyce, as coach, wise, calm, with his son? His lively son and his character?
- The issue of high school, the four together, their being separated in classes? The issue of the Catholic school? The applications, their attendance? Life at the Catholic school, its ethos?
- Dermot Mulroney as the coach, hard, his career, the interviews, his being persuaded to coach?
- The film showing the progress of the four young men growing up, their talents, collaboration, their careers, each succeeding in a different way? The emergence of Lebron James and his successful career?
- The epilogue, the information about each of the four and their subsequent successful careers?
