How good can a movie be that when you leave its premiere, nobody in your four-person group even talks about it? Even when one of those in the group was sort of involved in it? Not so good.
Wednesday I went with some old MU sports geeks to see the premiere of Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a documentary about high school basketball stars on the verge of NBA stardom. Directed by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, the film centers around one of their games at Rucker Park in Harlem.
Sounds like a winner for a sports nerd like me…so why no love? Well, for starters, musician Yauch clearly considers himself more of a music man than a filmmaker, which makes for a pretty awful movie. I mean the end of the movie spent yards of film on music credits…detailing every mix in there, but does little to acknowledge the majority of the film clips used in it. Speaking of those clips…most were grainy Internet cut-and-paste jobs that not only make it nauseating to watch on the big screen but also — even before the credits started — left me with little faith that their makers got the same credit (or pay) that the musicians did for the film.
And the actual story? Well, I like documentaries. OK. I REALLY like documentaries. I love how they take the audience on a journey, and we get to see, hear, and feel what another person (or animal) sees, hears, and feels. But this movie doesn’t do that. This movie has no journey. And the whole thing was shot with just a week of following the guys (according to an AP article)…hardly the time it takes to really get to know a subject. Instead, we just get to hear that a court is famous, see some kids playing a game, and hear others talking about how hard they think their life must be (um, hello…”show don’t tell” is a pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to laying out a good story…why didn’t Yauch just SHOW us how hard their life must be?)
It got a lot of hype at the film festivals, and even the premiere drew its fair share of coverage (of course it probably helped that a few of the guys in it were going to be starring in the draft the next night and were in attendance for the big showing). But still, I have to say, it just wasn’t good enough. Fun to watch in the way that I’m sure it was fun to see Jordan play pro baseball…but all the time knowing that someone should just stick to his day job.
