The Basketball Diaries (1995)

*** out of ****

Here in 2015 we can look back on Leonardo DiCaprio's career (thus far) and admire what a great talent he is. As far back as “Titanic” in 1997 he has been a fantastic leading man – and possibly the most likeable on-screen face you'll find. Absolutely NOBODY is better at playing the “nice guy” and I admire his ability. But even if you didn't have the past two decades to watch him, if you'd seen him 20 years ago in “The Basketball Diaries” you'd know you had someone pretty special on your hands.

DiCaprio is Jim Carroll, a New York kid with aspirations – he is a well thought of athlete and writes well enough to be considering a career as a scribe. He and a couple of his buddies think a bit too highly of themselves and get in plenty of mischief, mostly having to do with their lack of respect for authority. Eventually their little experiments with drugs (weed, ether, etc.) mount into a dabbling into heroin. And of course, as always happens when heroin is dabbled with, it becomes the only thing they want to do.

Jim lives with his single mother, but when she sees what he's getting himself into she gives him the “my way or the highway” ultimatum, and Jim chooses the highway. Over the next several months (years?) he and two of his lifelong cronies (played admirably well by Mark Wahlberg and James Madio) start lives of petty crime where the only objective is to find a way to get the next fix.

Wahlberg (at the time of this film he was still Marky Mark) got a lot of attention for his performance in this film, but I personally think it's only because nobody expected him to be any good as an actor. It's DiCaprio that owns this stage – he not only performs it well, he has the whole junkie thing down pat. The sniffly nose, the spaced-out eyes, the obsessive look and the single-mindedness. If you didn't know better you'd think he actually had experience in the lifestyle....

There is a particular scene late in the film, where Jim is on the run from the law and tries to go back home, that is really spectacular. Her agony at what he has become, her conflict over her desire to help him and her fear of him, and his conflict over whether he just wants her to throw him a few bucks or to really come home.... it's a fantastic scene. Both DiCaprio and Lorraine Bracco (who plays Jim's mother) couldn't have been more convincing.

Beyond being great entertainment, I would go as far as to suggest it's something that parents might want to make sure they get their middle-teens to watch. Drug addiction is one of those things that kids always think “yeah, other people get in trouble with it but it can't happen to me”. This film shows just how far such experimentation can take you before you end up on the other side of the sod.

A bit too gritty for some tastes, but a fine film and a great performance.