Gunnin' for That #1 Spot

A spunky, impassioned and resourceful doc on the cutthroat world of US college basketball made for a pittance by Adam Yauch, one third of New York hip hop doyens the Beastie Boys. Briskly tracing the blossoming careers of eight very different young players, the film offers a neat and wide-ranging view of the particulars of the game while also passing sly comment on the pervading role of family and commerce in sculpting tomorrow’s hoop dreamers.

Though the film climaxes in a feisty, energised, fisheye-filmed showdown at Harlem’s hallowed Rucker Park court, where, we’re assured, professional opportunities are won and lost, you get the sense that the message Yauch is trying to convey is that the desire by the media to isolate – and make a tidy buck on – these potential stars is slowly concealing the quasi-balletic artistry and primal energy that basketball is often able to generate. The soundtrack, as you might imagine, is absolutely killer.