SHOOTING STARS (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

Shooting Stars, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 1, 2023

This isn't exactly and fully a LeBron James origin story, even if Shooting Stars does eventually become just that. It's a stronger movie until that point, as we watch a group of longtime friends stay devoted to each other almost as a reflex at first, only to realize that life often gets in the way of even the most tightly knit bonds. A young James just happens to be part of the group, whose story could have been about much more than basketball and deeper than just watching the rise of its most famous member.

The screenplay, based on a book by James and Buzz Bissinger, certainly begins with that kind of promise. Obviously, the fact that screenwriters Frank E. Flowers, Tony Rettenmaier, and Juel Taylor are working from source material that comes in part from James' perspective should be the first sign of what's to come. The basketball star also serves as a producer here, so there's that, too.

His story, which isn't just his story initially, begins in the mid-1990s, as a pre-teen LeBron and his three best friends play basketball as much as possible, either together or as part of a youth league in which their team is always on top, and play video games revolving around the sport whenever they aren't. A few years later, the four are preparing to go to high school in their hometown of Akron, Ohio, with the expectation that Lebron (Marquis "Mookie" Cook) and his friends will attend the local public school, which prides itself on its basketball program.

There's one major problem, though. Lil Dru Joyce (Caleb McLaughlin), the shortest of the friends, won't be on the varsity team with his pals on account of his height. That sends him on a mission to find an alternative, and Lil Dru discovers it with the arrival of former college coach Keith Dambrot (Dermot Mulroney) at a local Catholic school. Proving himself and promising as much talent from his pals to the new coach, Lil Dru convinces Lebron, Willie McGee (Avery S. Willis Jr.), and Sian Cotton (Khalil Everage)—calling themselves "the Fab Four"—to join him at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School instead.

For a while, the screenplay and director Chris Robinson focus on the bond between these four friends—both off the court, as they dream and joke with each other, and on it, where there's little need for any talking because of how attuned they are to each other's skills. There's a real dynamism to the basketball scenes here, with Robinson and cinematographer Karsten Gopinath's camera often floating and weaving around and with the players. It adds a layer of fluidity to the movement on court, highlighting the ease with which these four can play.

Of course, basketball is important to the story, which covers the entirety of the group's four years at the school, as they quickly prove their skills to the coach, rise through the ranks of Ohio high school basketball, and become of national interest as soon as it becomes clear that LeBron is a particularly special talent. The attention here, though, isn't on any single game (They mostly play as highlight reels) or season or rising through the ranks (Much of that is presented by way of shorthand montages), and that's to the movie's credit. It has something else in mind.

That's to track the rise and potential fall of this friend group, as success goes to each one's head in a slightly different way. There's Lil Dru, for example, whose father, also named Dru (Wood Harris), becomes Keith's assistant coach and, later, the team's coach. A scene in which Lebron, Willie, and Sian keep passing their friend the ball so that he can prove the doubters wrong, though, becomes a thing of the past in a matter of a couple years, and Lil Dru watches and listens as his own father serves as LeBron's advocate.

Eventually, the screenplay's shortcuts catch up to the narrative, though. That's especially true of how little we actually learn about Willie, beyond his youthful height and the basics of his familial situation, and especially Sian, who's mostly the butt of some jokes about his healthy appetite.

Meanwhile, Lil Dru does have his envy and feelings of inferiority, but as the years pass here, LeBron takes control of the story. He has his relationship with his mother Gloria (Natalie Paul), who works long hours to ensure her son has everything he needs and could want, and a budding romance with Savannah (Katlyn Nichol), who tries to keep LeBron's sudden fame from going to his head. Mostly, it's a matter of perspective, as everything starts to be seen from LeBron's point of view, with his star on the rise and no matter what else might be going on with his friends in the last two years of their high school careers.

There are moments and a general undercurrent of real honesty in Shooting Stars when the movie includes the whole of this friend group. It diminishes, though, as their story is finally overshadowed in the exact way anyone could have predicted it would have been.

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