BOOGIE (2021) 

PLOT:

Boogie is a transfer student to a smart school in Queens, New York that has a crippling basketball team. He is a talented ball player, and he knows it. The hope: the school wins a few games and Boogie gets a scholarship. He navigates adolescence like many do, awkwardly and clumsily. He models his behavior after hip-hop influences that glamorize being elite, being the best. This makes talking to women a sordid affair. He is cocky and arrogant. But that is his shield to hide his insecurities. He has a hot-tempered father and a headstrong mother. They see a future for Boogie, and that future is basketball prosperity. This exchange plays out in an opening flashback scene with his parents when they are young and pregnant, seeking the counsel of a fortune teller.

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The film doesn’t slog as much as it races to the next plot point. He gets interviewed by talent scouts, argues with his coach, and sizes up his basketball rival, Monk (played by the late Pop Smoke). He opens his shell a bit in his English class; disclosing that reading about unrelatable characters is the antithesis of growing his own identity. He begins a relationship with a lovely young classmate named Eleanor (Taylor Paige), after he nearly blows it by being a creep in the school gym. She is reserved also, but the two share a connection that feels genuine. They allow themselves to be seen by the other. As with all teen sports drama, there is the inevitable turning point. This conflict appears when Boogie’s mother hires an agent on Boogie’s behalf. This relationship doesn’t net a paid scholarship but a chance to play basketball in China for a sizable salary instead. This, of course, does not gel with Boogie’s father who was the assuming manager for Boogie’s entire life. 

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The unbelievable third act comes paint-by-numbers, if paint-by-numbers came with an extra helping of convenience. Boogie’s rival, Monk, goads and bullies him, disclosing he had dated Eleanor before. Because of course he has. I never would have assumed Queens to be so small. The championship game between the two rival teams is scheduled, but is cancelled before it begins. One because it violates Boogie’s fancy new China contract, and two, both young men begin a fight right there on the court. So, the rematch - contracts be damned, apparently - is set at the rival team’s outdoor court under street lights. The coaches, the teams, seemingly the whole neighborhood is in attendance. After the game is over, with an unsurprising triumph for Boogie, he and Monk symbolically kiss and makeup. Street credit and respect are always the most valuable currency in these films. Thankfully, the film closes on a tender, intimate scene between Boogie and his girlfriend over dinner instead of wrapping up right there on the court. The pair question their future and their commitment moving forward. This is a better choice to end the film with. It isn’t the strongest ending, but it does bend the rules.

ACTING | CHARACTERS | DIALOGUE:

The dialogue in Boogie is plagued by a lockstep formulaic dribble commensurate with the pantheon of similar films that came before it. The banter between Boogie and his parents, his girlfriend, his best friend and his rival is as fresh as milk left out overnight. It is lumpy and mildly odorous, and I found myself pulling away more than gravitating toward it. The acting, while not having much to work with, limps through the film. The most explicit example of this was Boogie himself. The scenes calling for heavy emotional beats wind up as cringy and misplaced.