Snubbed By The Academy Hoop Dreams

"Hoop Dreams" chronicles the lives and highschool careers of two Chicago-area basketball players. It is such a comprehensive achievement and is so effective both dramatically and as a social portrait, that we can't help but remain engrossed throughout this extraordinary work.

William Gates and Arthur Agee are both in junior high school when their skill on the court catches the attention of recruiter who want them to attend one of Chicago's premier high-school basketball powerhouses, St. Joseph's. The coach assures Agee that he will help get Agee a college scholarship if he attends St. Joseph's, this convincing him and his family to make the choice.

Gates is even more heavily pursued, told by everyone that he is already a star.

Thus begins a four-and-a half-year odyssey which documents the boys' seperate sports careers (Arthur doesn't manage to stay at St. Joseph's very long), and includes many of the familiar peaks and valleys experienced by high-school athletic prodigies.

This is real-life drama. The attraction of sports, unlike real life, allows many people a taste of clear-cut triumph and failure.

-excerpted from a review by Geoffrey Gilmore, in "Sundance Film Festival '94."