I don't want to be unduly heavy handed, but even for an indie effort, this movie is as bad as I've seen awhile. The acting performances, script, music, editing, but especially the writing were just horrible.
The only thing about the film that was even close to believable was the skill of the players, though the game segments were hokey, hokey, hokey. There weren't any NBA quality players, but some of the players were skilled enough for college play, more than we might say for the script.
Sadly, the screenplay was disjointed as a broken press. It was full of clichés, lacked direction, coherence, and focus. The casting choices were laughable, with apparent thirty year-olds attempting to pass as teenagers. Danilo Mancinelli has some potential as an actor, but the rest of the characters were amateurish as a YMCA team.
Even with all of these negative components, I might have been inspired to offer a positive comment about the movie's heart or intent, but the film was delivered so disjointedly, that I couldn't discern any of that. The main character often seemed likable, but intermittently uttered inane, shallow, dismissive comments that indicated a lack of critical thinking, nuance, and consistency of character.
One of the major problems with the script is that characters were written as arbitrary and/or capricious (the coaches). There are certainly bad people in the world, but even apparently bad people usually do things for their own reasons. As written, we were forced to simply assume the characters were unfair simply because the protagonist didn't get his way. My experience in sports and in life is that if the same thing consistently happens to the same person, the problem tends to be within, not without. To be believable, a film must offer more of an explanation than, "because the script said so."
I admire the effort of anybody that jumps into the pool rather than sunning themselves on the sidelines. Still, a future effort cannot elevate without listening to sincere, candid criticism. I wish all those associated with the film future success.
