A Beastie Boy can't make audiences forget Hoop Dreams

For better or worse (the latter in this case), it’s impossible to make a basketball documentary without it being compared to Steve James’ 1994 Hoop Dreams, widely considered one of the best nonfiction films of modern times. Director Adam Yauch (Awesome, I F---in’ Shot That!), currently in the midst of an intriguing career realignment after years as one of rap’s Beastie Boys, couldn’t make us forget Hoop Dreams if he tried. So he doesn’t. Instead, Yauch attempts a softer, flashier profile of eight high school basketball phenoms traveling to Harlem to compete in the first annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic. Yauch’s colorful musical past and our desire to see a young new director announce his arrival engender some excitement. However, Gunnin’ is a conventional exercise in documentary storytelling, not a rich and incisive assessment of youth and sports cultures. Yauch’s name value and the subject matter should get some Air Kobe-wearing butts into theatre seats. But it’s hard to imagine word of mouth being all that good.

From frame one, Yauch compromises his film by focusing on too many players to guarantee full emotional investment, especially since he presents them as a fairly uninteresting cross section of socio-economic circumstances. Donte Greene wants to make the NBA to care for his younger brother following the death of their mother five years earlier. Medford, Ore.’s Kyle Singler is a sports natural who played football and baseball and ran track before deciding on basketball. When picked to travel to New York to play on the legendary courts at Harlem’s Rucker Park, Singler wonders if the Big Apple is “the same as I’ve seen on TV.” Symbolizing hope for the fading concept of sports as pure athletic expression is Tyreke Evans, a humble Pennsylvanian who doesn’t play for the promise of money or cars and is trained by his brother. Someday, those three, and the other five, may end up on a T-shirt or hoisting the NBA championship trophy, but for now they’re still kids. Indeed, Yauch’s film takes place during those final moments when basketball isn’t all about contract extensions and corporate sponsorships. Still, many of these teens are already fighting off agents and financial advisors who hope to cultivate a relationship that’ll pay off down the road. Yauch doesn’t ignore these questionable, if not sleazy, practices. Yet the spotlight stays on the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic—itself, of course, an opportunity for a corporation to benefit from free teenage labor. Similarly opportunistic are the shoe companies, who give the kids gratis kicks to generate street cred.

The actual game, which comprises most of the film’s second half, was shot using eight cameras and edited with streetwise flair and terrific music. Yauch and editor Neal Usatin replay flamboyant dunks backwards and forwards, like scratching with video instead of turntables. The courtside announcer provides comic relief, assigning nicknames like Wireless and Kevlar, as the game progresses. Watching these talented kids is definitely a joy and the teams are well matched. But there’s just not very much as stake here. The losers won’t lessen their chances of making the NBA, and everyone goes home with great memories. The game has neither drama nor consequence. By the end, as NBA stars Steve Nash and Jason Kidd hand out the MVP trophies, Yauch still hasn’t established his overarching point. While some of the players have already started to achieve great things, as movie subjects they’re too thin, and the documentary that contains them is too conventional.

Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Director: Adam Yauch
Producers: Jon Doran and Adam Yauch
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG-13 for language
Running Time: 88 min.
Release date: June 27 ltd.