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The Basketball Diaries (1995)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 39
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 21

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 8

No consensus yet.

audience

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 51,999

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Movie Info

Very loosely based on the memoir of the same name, The Basketball Diaries transposes the late '60s adolescence of writer/artist Jim Carroll to some unspecified time period at least 15 years later, further confusing the timeframe with three decades of rock music, some by Carroll himself. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Catholic school chums are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but their friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) languishes in the hospital with leukemia. In-between typically

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Drama

Directed By: Scott Kalvert

Written By: Brian Goluboff

In Theaters: Apr 21, 1995 Wide

On DVD: Jun 30, 1998

PolyGram Video

The Basketball Diaries Trailer & Photos

Cast

Jimmy Papiris
Iggy
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jim Carroll
Nick Gaetani
Referee
Bruno Kirby
Swifty
Alexander Gaberman
Bobo
Lorraine Bracco
Jim's Mother
Ben Jorgensen
Tommy
Ernie Hudson
Reggie Porter
Patrick McGaw
Neutron
Akiko Ashley
Stripper
Juliette Lewis
Diane Moody
Cynthia Daniel
Winkie
Brittany Daniel
Blinkie
Erik "Panther" Betts
Drug Dealer #1
Joyce R. Korbin
Mugging Victim
Lawrence Barth
Referee #2
Gary Iorio
Policeman
Jim Carroll
Frankie Pinewater
John Hoyt
Billy the Bartender
Manny Siverio
Pino
Tom Fitzpatrick
Subway John
Vincent Pastore
Construction Worker
Manny Alfaro
Manny
Doc Dougherty
Policeman
Barton Heyman
Confessional Priest
Michael Imperioli
Bobby
James Madio
Pedro
Michael Rapaport
Skinhead
Marilyn Sokol
Chanting Woman
John C. Vennema
Mr Rubin
Josh Mostel
Counterman
Roy Cooper
Father McNulty
Toby Huss
Kenny
Mark Wahlberg
Mickey
William Webb
Juju Johnson

Critic Reviews for The Basketball Diaries

All Critics (40) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (21) | DVD (9)

For those few soul-freezing moments, you get a glimpse of the great actor Leonardo DiCaprio is going to be.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

Significantly, the movie keeps the hero's reformation offscreen as well as unexplained; it's more interested in shock effects than in candor or elucidation.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

The star shines, but the movie is hard to watch.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

You leave The Basketball Diaries believing that Leonardo DiCaprio can do anything.

May 12, 2001 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

Although it masquerades as a cautionary tale about the horrors of heroin, this epic of teen-age angst is more accurately seen as a reverential wallow in the gutter of self-absorption.

February 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Facile escapes are rejected, and the resolution is acceptable because we can believe it. In fact, that's the reason this film works as well as it does: credibility.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews

| Comment

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

What almost saves the muddled pic from fouling out is the raw dynamic performance by Leonardo DiCaprio... .

July 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Stark tale of teen drug abuse and delinquency.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

David Gurney

Common Sense Media

An uncomfortable experience, to say the least. But also quite rewarding.

October 16, 2010 Full Review Source: IGN DVD

| Comment

R. L. Shaffer

IGN DVD

Bleak, depressing independent film making with an incredible performance by Leonardo Di Caprio, The Basketball Diaries shows that, if anything, it is the company you keep that will eventually lead to your downfall.

July 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews

| Comment

Matthew Pejkovic

Matt's Movie Reviews

It was impossible in The Basketball Diaries not to take notice of DiCaprio's seemingly undauntable talent, as he channeled the tortures of the drug-addicted damned. [Blu-ray]

May 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews

| Comment

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews Source: Groucho Reviews

...an intoxicating, frightening and emotionally honest essay on the self-destructive impulses of the nascent artist.

May 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

| Comment

Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Di Caprio gives a bravura turn that should've won him an Oscar

July 23, 2008 Comment

Clint Morris

Moviehole

Although the film, like most films that deal with drug issues, has a preachy sincerity and a focus on the woes of drug use it makes for effective, compelling viewing.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

If the idea of watching Leonardo DiCaprio pout for 90 minutes gives you sweaty palms, by all means go.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comments (2)

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The angel-faced DiCaprio is a gifted actor, but he lacks the authority and physical presence to keep us with him.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Time Out

You never understand what really motivated this intelligent adolescent, a gifted basketball player and sensitive writer, to descend into the hellish life of a drug addict and hustler on the mean streets of New York.

June 15, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment (1)

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

Crushingly over-emoted and internally inconsistent; for Leo die-hards only, and how many of those are around anymore?

April 20, 2004 Comments (4)

Nick Davis

Nick's Flick Picks

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Basketball Diaries

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Used to despise Caprio initially, but now he's growing on me. Probably I was not qualified to see how talented an actor is. But I guess I'm progressing with time, at least in that direction. Or maybe it's vice versa. [Hell, whenever I comment, for most of the times, it's not entirely concentrated on the movie itself.

August 16, 2011

familiar stranger

Super Reviewer

"Man, who da hell axed you to suck dat dick!?"

August 31, 2010

Coxxie Mild Sauce

Super Reviewer

The Basketball Diaries Quotes

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1. Jim Carroll: And it's good that there is rain. It clears the month of your sorry rainbow expressions, and it clears the streets of the silent armies... so we can dance.
– Submitted by Ann O (3 months ago)
1. Pedro: Holy shit, look at this place.
2. Mickey: Wow! I tell you what, if our school was this nice I'd go more than once a week.
– Submitted by Alex O (5 months ago)
1. Jim Carroll: You gotta have presence on the court. Presence like a cheetah rather than a chimp. Sure, they both got it, but Chimpy gotta jump his nuts around to get it. The shy cheetah moves with total nonchalance, stickin' it to them in his sexy, slow strut. Me? I play like a cheetah.
– Submitted by Shamir M (6 months ago)

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