A heartwarming true-life tale told with a heavy helping of schmaltz, Franklin Martin’s documentary details the arduous path of Kevin Laue—a 6'11" high-school basketball player with Division 1 dreams, despite the fact that he lost his left hand at birth. A framing device involving Laue’s deceased father pulls on heartstrings too aggressively, but the athlete’s dedication and determination amid further obstacles (leg injuries, forced enrollment in an East Coast military academy) are undeniably moving. And in its portraits of Laue’s two coaches, Long Shot confirms that achieving one’s goals is rarely possible without the staunch support of others.
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