"Boogie" - Review

Film Synopsis: Coming-of-age story of Alfred "Boogie" Chin (played by Taylor Takahashi), a basketball phenomenon living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite College, Boogie must find a way to navigate a new girlfriend (played by Taylour Paige), high school, on-court rivals, & the burden of expectation. Can he juggle all of these challenges and overcome the obstacles to achieve?

TRAVIS' GRADE GIVEN: {C-}

Genre: Drama

Release Date: Mar. 5th, 2021

He's All About The Basketball:

Travis' Breakdown:

I felt the film was a mixture between two films and those two films are: the 1992 film, White Men Can't Jump and the 2005 film Coach Carter. And if you decide to watch the film, as it progresses on, it will become so, so, so obvious to you why these two films will come into play in your mind. Allow me to explain further....

In White Men Can't Jump, Sidney was trying to convince Billy that just because he was not black, he could not "slam dunk" and be a great basketball success basically and now to compare that part to this movie. Everyone was telling Boogie that there is no room in the NBA for a Chinese-American. See the comparison I just made there?

 Next, to link it to the Coach Carter film; the film was all about making the guys on the basketball team focus on their lives and grades; being better men and not worrying about girls, sex, booze, parties, etc. All of the things that high school boys worry about. All of the kids on the team in that film has severe attitude problems and were flippant @ the mouth and very rebellious until Coach Carter came along and showed them "tough love." 

Same thing in this movie happened, only it fell short in this aspect. It was not the entire team that needed an adjustment -  it was only Boogie. The film is named Boogie because the film is all about him. That is another characteristic of the film that I loved. 

His mother loved him fiercely, but his father did as well, but both of parents loved him, just in different ways and they were going in totally different directions. 

How can a child feel anything but conflict living in a household where all the parents do is fight and argue and they have no refuge, but a girl to go to who he likes? That was the only solace that Boogie had - Eleanor and his best friend, Richie. At times, a child can bring and piece a family together, but a child should not a a "fix it" to a problem or a solution. 

A child should be a blessing from God and something that both people in a loving and deep relationship WANT AND DESIRE to have and to raise that child in light, goodness, and love and that was not the case for Boogie, unfortunately. 

There was a scene in the film where Eleanor and Boogie talk about their upbringings and life circumstances - and one thing became immediately clear to me and that was this: not everyone is raised with a silver spoon in their mouth and not everyone has it easy; and not everyone has it rough; life is not easy - it is HOW we choose to make the best and most out of it. The final scene with Eleanor and Boogie really touched me. Would you like to know if he made it to the NBA? Watch and see....

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