cinephile-27690 This is in my top 10 and along with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel I think this is 1994's best movie! It's 172 minutes long but it's worth your time. The movie follows 2 boys who want to become NBA basketball players. This is limited to see(though as I write this it's free on Demand) and it needs more attention! Fun Fact: Steve James, the director, appreciated Roger's acclaim so much that he directed his biography! If you can't see it on Demand, you can get it for $30 at Barnes and Noble on DVD(that's how I own it.) This is very much worth your time- so please see it!

Matt Dull I remember when this movie came out in 1994. I saw it, but being 16 and living an affluent small town existence I couldn't relate at all to a 3 hr documentary like this.Fast forward 15 years and as adult that lives in Chicago(setting of film) and having seen and experienced many more of the ups and downs of life, I really liked this film when I saw it again.I found this film extremely moving. The struggles of the main characters and their families really made an impact on me. The 3 hrs passed quickly and I must say that the film really stuck in my mind. It made me think critically about sports and our society in general in this day and age. To me, that indicates it was a great film!

ThreeThumbsUp This groundbreaking documentary is about as close to cinematic perfect as a film can get.Taking no less than six full years to construct, Hoops Dreams follows the lives of two aspiring basketball players from Chicago's lower-class communities. Starting as freshman, cameras document the lives of Arthur Agee and William Gates as the pair enters their freshman years at St. Joe's High School, a private institution known for its rich basketball tradition.Gates is considered the next great basketball prodigy to come out of St. Joe's, drawing comparisons to NBA Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas, who graduated from the school in the 1960s.Discovered by a scout mining for talent in one of the city's many forgotten blacktops of the deprived south side, Agee is much less renowned than Gates, but still earns a partial athletic scholarship.Gates immediately makes the varsity team as a freshman and enjoys a generally successful first two years at St. Joe's. Letters from almost every major college basketball program come flooding in as Gates becomes one of the most sought-after young basketball players in the state of Illinois.After one year at St. Joe's, Agee struggles to acclimate to the school's "suburban" culture and transfers to a public high school much closer to his home in the city.With expectations sky-high entering his junior season, Gates suffers a serious knee injury early on, forcing him to miss almost every game while hampering his chances of garnering a major Division I scholarship.With his father aimlessly wandering the streets strung out on drugs and the family struggling to pay even the most basic of bills, life is even more tumultuous for Agee. The low point comes when the electricity in there home is cut off due to excessive missed payments.Despite his personal and academic struggles, Agee begins to flourish on the hardwood, leading his John Marshall High School team to the city championship and a berth in the Illinois State Basketball Tournament. Along the way, the team fastens a few inspiring - and equally thrilling - upsets of some of the state's elite teams.Wearing a perceptible and somewhat clunky brace, Gates returns for his senior season and seems to have lost his explosive first step and fearless attitude. His team is upset early in the playoffs, putting an unceremonious end to Gates's high school career. Despite his struggles and a re-aggravation of his knee injury during an elite off-season basketball camp, Gates manages to receive, and accept, a full-athletic scholarship from Marquette University in Milwaukee.Agee does not have the grades to attend a four-year college directly out of high school, so the budding talent signs with a Junior College in the Midwest before ultimately transferring to Division I Arkansas State.The juxtaposition of the lives of these two young men make for a compelling and authentic look at inner-city life, big-time basketball recruiting, expectations, pressure and the pursuit of a better life through athletics. You don't have to be a basketball fanatic to appreciate this superb piece of filmmaking either. It's simply a masterpiece that will transcend generations.

Benedict_Cumberbatch I'd heard a lot about this documentary, but had never seen it. I've even read comments by few people calling it their favourite film, "even though it's a documentary" (as if that was a bad thing!). It's understandable to see why this film speaks to the hearts of so many people."Hoop Dreams" follows two teenaged Chicago residents, Arthur Agee and William Gates, and their dreams of becoming professional basketball players - more than that, basketball superstars a la Michael Jordan. From their first year of high school until they start college, we observe all of the expectations, efforts, joy, disappointments, and numerous obstacles that make their journey.Will Agee and Gates manage to overcome all the obstacles and become more than most of their peers even dream to achieve? The suspense is well-built through clever editing and a good sense of rhythm, pace and storytelling (documenting is also storytelling, after all), and the film doesn't feel 170 minutes long. By the end, you realize you've watched two real people growing up and doing what they can or cannot - failing and trying again - to achieve their goals and dreams, no matter what are the odds imposed by their economical and social backgrounds. Hoop Dreams come(s) true as both a slice of life and a fascinating socio-anthropological study. Not bad for a 'basketball documentary'.