Mark Reviews Movies: BOOGIE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 4, 2021

For most of his debut feature, writer/director Eddie Huang can't decide if he wants to bypass or embrace the formula of this familiar story. Boogie is about a teenage basketball player of Chinese descent who dreams of making it professionally. The story is partially about those dreams, as well as the multiple obstacles in the characters way, and partially about the young man himself, who might be the biggest barrier of them all. To be honest, though, it's mostly about an assortment of complications that pile up rather quickly over the course of the movie's relatively short run time.

There's something here, for sure, as we follow Alfred "Boogie" Chin (Taylor Takahashi, in a decent debut performance) and his drive to prove himself the best high school player in New York City, catch the attention of college recruiters, and get a full athletic scholarship. Along the way, he also has to deal with the tumultuous relationship between his immigrant parents and a new girlfriend, while also negotiating with a coach who doesn't believe in showboating and a manager whose intentions might not be in the young man's best interests.

It's a lot, and one of the more admirable things of Huang's early approach is creating a sense that the answers to all these challenges either won't be simple or might not arrive at all. Boogie's mother (played by Pamelyn Chee) and father (played by Perry Yung) have had difficulties in their relationship since before he was born (The prologue has the younger couple at a local fortune teller, who offers advice—clearly unheeded by the two—about treating each other with love and kindness). By the end, we doubt if any level of success from their child will solve any of those issues.

There's a certain wisdom in this, as well as in some of the compromises Boogie must make to achieve something. With such observations and developments, Huang seems to be leading this material away from the obvious build-up of external problems and climactic moments. That doesn't last for too long, though, and the screenplay falls back on giving Boogie as many difficulties as possible and finding a somewhat easy resolution to his story with that oldest of sports-story clichés—the Big Game.

Boogie has transferred to a new high school under the advice of his father, who was recently released from prison. The father believes Boogie can make it in the traditional route toward the professional ranks, but the mother has her doubts, sees the bills piling up while her husband focuses on their son's dream of a basketball career, and dreads even more debt if Boogie doesn't get a scholarship to a college. She hires Melvin (Mike Moh) as Boogie's manager, and Melvin seems more interested in Mrs. Chin than her son's prospects.

Meanwhile, Boogie flirts with classmate Eleanor (Taylour Paige), who slowly sees that there's more to this guy than his slightly aggressive approach (The class they share has a teacher who rather awkwardly makes the movie's coming-of-age goals blunt). He also has difficulty adapting to the philosophy of his new coach (played by Domenick Lombardozzi), who knows Boogie is the best player on the team but also knows the young man will have to learn to be a team player if he wants to make it in college and beyond. Boogie's main goal right now is to defeat Monk (the late Bashar "Pop Smoke" Jackson), the star player of a rival school and the local street court.

While all of this unfolds, Huang raises ideas about cultural tradition (The filmmaker plays Boogie's uncle, who explains to the young man why his parents insist on him recognizing and following those ideals), race (Boogie has a speech about stereotypes and expectations for Eleanor, who is Black—and doesn't appreciate the lecture too much), and other such topics. The movie waylays such specific ideas, though, for a deluge of complications.

Boogie is sent to the locker room after disobeying the coach during a game, putting his college hopes in jeopardy. His manager sets up a deal for Boogie to play professionally in China, and that results in an extortion-like scenario that forces the young man to decide between his future plans and his father possibly going to prison again. There's romantic trouble when Boogie learns about one of Eleanor's past relationships, and there's an unfortunate tinge of sexism to the way that develops, just so Boogie has a greater motive to prove himself against a rival.

The whole of Boogie eventually feels at odds with itself. It constantly asserts that Boogie's major issues lie off the court—within himself and from the conflict between his parents—and that nothing in a game is going to solve those things. On the court, the movie makes the point that Boogie has to learn not to make the game about himself, his grudges, and his quest for stardom. After all of that, though, Huang reduces the resolution of just about every conflict to a Big Game, between Boogie (and his team) and Monk. It's anticlimactic and, after the movie spends so much time showing and telling how much deeper these issues are, a bit dishonest.

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