The Basketball Diaries DVD: Review By Rock

Meet Jim your kinda average high school baskettball player with a talent for writing. But his double hard drug taking life will soon take over him and his friends since Jim tries to find himself and undertsnad the harshness of life tru hard drugs . Jim will bring you on his dark self-finding journey and it wont be real pretty

Now has a book adaptation, hardcore fans of Jim Carrol's book calls this film a blasphemy even Jim Carrol stated that he hated the film ( but he still agreed to do a cameo in it, not a bad one either quite a memorable scene actually) , since they created/invented characters , side plots and basiclly a story line and a story arc . Since the book is basiclly a compilation of diary entries not even in chronological order that Jim Carrol wrote in his diary between the age of 13 and 16 . It's more a exploration of drugs , sex and poetry , exept for Jim there isnt any other main characters , just a bunch of them , there isnt even a trio of friends that Jim talks about. I tried to read the book has a teen(15 or 16) , really couldnt get into it , I found the poetry to be some pretentious coming from a kid that was my age and i was just wondering why the f*ck would you wanna shoot heroin and be a junkie at 13 ( he started H at 13 even before he smoke some pot) , f*ck finding yourslef tru drugs that will just get you hook and kinda take out the fun in life , beleived me it's a lot more fun if your kinda trie to find your inner self tru Srooms , Lsd , Pot/hash , Beer and even Mescaline ( does the same thing has beeing drunk without the hangover the next morning) .Dont get me wrong the best thing for anyone is to find yourslef sober tru life and just be high on life , but sadly some need more then that , all that just to say i stop reading the book just after a few of the entries.

So it's been my opinion since i saw this film has a teen : f*ck the baskettball book purist , this wasnt really made to be a adaption of a 13 year old chasing H tru is veins for a couple of years ( again at 16 Carrol wasnt sober , am not even sure at age he quit drugs or if he ever did , probably not if he was part of Andy Warhol's entourage lol). It was just inspired by some elements of his life and his entourage.

This is more a character study of young men under the influence of a devastating drug , each character could be a trait you would find in a junkie. Jim his the inteligent junkie finding himself tru his trip , good or bad and weaves it into poetry , Pedro is the Junkie that just live in a perpetual dream and seems to be always in a dreamlike state , and Mickey is Junkie that is just vicious , angry , self centered and just dont give a f*ck. and theres the 4th friend that quit everything before things went out of controll and probably had a futur in basketball , he's kinda the mirror that could of been so is the end of each 3 main junkies

You get to see what the bottom of the sewer has to offer has you watch Jim and his friends sink lower and lower , tru petty crimes , prostition and even begging to familly members

I always thought the acting was amazing in this you get some really strong perfomance by Leonardo Dicaprio but also suprisingly by mark Walhberg has mickey , probably one of his best perfomance ever , each time i ear someone say he aint a real actor I recomend they watch this and even the side characters are really well played by veteran actors Ernie Hudson , lorraine Braco ,Bruno Kirby and Julliette Lewis. And that it just sucha good dark glimpse at that underworl and beleive it's really realistic

I like to think that one of the reasons ive always stayed away from Heroin or really addictive drugs has a kid was in part because of this film , so in my opinion it's a pretty powerfull film that will never really age and soundtrak is also a good listen