Review of The Basketball Diaries (1995) by Andrew B — 04 Dec 2015

Lets start off with what is good about Basketball Diaries which is Leonardo Dicaprio. You could tell in this movie that this guy was going to be a superstar. Obviously he had the looks since all the young girls in my school adored him and hung pictures on their wall, but through that exterior we have an amazing actor at the start of his amazing career here.

He plays the role of drug addict and juvenile crumb to perfection in this movie, as does Mark Wahlberg, who honestly is just as good. The movie itself though, not such much. The basketball diaries comes off more disturbing and disgusting than anything else, and no, I don't think that is what the director was going for.

I honestly think that an updated version of this film would be better with a better director. The scene where Jim (Dicaprio) is forced to detox off heroin cold turkey in a friends bedroom is so over the top and blown out of proportion that is kills the reality of the film.

Withdrawal is bad and is not a fun time, but it is not anything like how it was portrayed in this movie. This movie honestly flat out stinks and a remake would do the guys story justice.