‘Boogie’ Film Review: Eddie Huang’s Basketball Saga Plays Best Off the Court
The characters’ interpersonal dynamics are fascinating, complicated, and less likely to be mired in sports-movie clichésAlonso Duralde | March 3, 2021 @ 5:00 PM
David Giesbrecht/Focus
There are important stories in “Boogie” about young love, about abusive marital and parental relationships, and about navigating Western culture as the child of Asian immigrants, but the film seems determined to be about the rise of a promising high-school basketball player, even though the basketball storyline is the least interesting of the plotlines on display.
Restaurateur and “Fresh Off the Boat” author Eddie Huang makes his feature debut as a writer-director, bringing a great deal of emotional honesty and cultural specificity to the table. But while his approach to the characters and their interactions feel fresh and personal, the entire basketball plot is cobbled together from countless sports-m