Make no mistake, the insane accolades given to Hoop Dreams over the past 15 years are wholly and completely earned. No film I have ever seen has proven as overtly education and instructional without being didactic and preachy. Nor has any documentary I have seen felt more honest, objective, fair and balanced. The film is the very definition of all a documentary can and should be.

The film follows two players from their initial discovery by playground scouts through their time playing high school basketball. We see the pressure associated with “the game”, as well as the ways in which the players are forced to choose between it and everything else in their lives. The slightest hesitance to choose the game results on lackluster encouragement from the team’s leaders; but the decision to dismiss everything else raises concerns among every other authority figure in their lives. It’s a catch-22; and that’s at the high school level.

An examination of the above scenario is certainly enough for a film; but the makers of Hoop Dreams provide a much broader and more moving piece of cinema. While the two youths are the focus of the film, we are also given glimpses of their family lives and social circumstances, both which inform and determine their fates. We see how any number of factors surrounding the players are just as important as their own choices and behavior. It’s an ever-fragile and wholly-unpredictable world they are forced to navigate, all the while still being minors.

All of this is, of course, presented objectively, leaving the viewer to decide if the decisions were right or not. Not only is this is a perplexing dilemma–that all-star status requires the sacrifice of all else; BUT the problem is compounded when one considers that the action of others may nullify all of one’s hard work. Welcome to the path of fame and glory, a narrow walkway for sure that shows just how difficult it is to reach the big leagues.

I can’t tell you how mesmerized, fascinated, and moved I was by this honest and true tale of pursuing that dream of Pro-athletics. Hoop Dreams is a perfect documentary. It is educational and forthrightly without the ugly touch of self-indulgence or didactic finger-pointing that all too often plagues the genre. Hoop Dreams gets an extremely solid 7 out of 7 from me.

Thanks to HULU, I have been able to Embed the entire Video below. Please support HULU and be sure to visit their site and make sure their sponsors get some luvin!