Hoop Dreams (1994)

98% of critics liked it
(48 reviews)
92% of users liked it
(10,041 ratings)

This documentary about the aspirations of high-school basketball players from inner city Chicago won awards from the Sundance film festival, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Academy Award (Oscar) for best editing. Two young men are followed during their entire high-school career, beginning… More This documentary about the aspirations of high-school basketball players from inner city Chicago won awards from the Sundance film festival, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Academy Award (Oscar) for best editing. Two young men are followed during their entire high-school career, beginning with their participation in playground games and ending with their being recruited by colleges. The obstacles these young men face include parental drug addiction, family poverty, and inner-city violence, as well as the usual obstacles that arise in competition, including physical injuries. While each aspires to leave the ghetto, there are many reasons to suppose they may not be able to, despite each beating the odds against them by winning college scholarships. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 2 hr. 51 min.
Directed By: Steve James
Genres: Documentary, Sports & Fitness, Special Interest

In Theaters: Oct 14, 1994 Wide
On DVD: May 9, 2000
Studio: Fine Line Features

Critic Reviews

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
It's about three hours long. But it moves like Isiah, fast and smooth, and it's over in a heartbreak.
David Ansen, Newsweek
Hoop Dreams has shown us that the rules of the game are stacked against kids like Gates and Agee. Even better, it shows us how they fight back, with the inside moves of hope.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
A heady dose of the American dream and the American nightmare combined -- a numbing investigation of how one point on an exam or one basket or turnover in a game can make all the difference in a family's fortunes.
Todd McCarthy, Variety
A prodigious achievement that conveys the fabric of modern American life, aspirations and incidentally, sports, in close-up and at length, Hoop Dreams is a documentary slam dunk.
Douglas Pratt, Hollywood Reporter
An ironic drama so beautifully sculpted it could be transposed without alteration into a fictional film.
Caryn James, New York Times
The film's great achievement is to reveal the relentless way in which coaches and recruiters refuse to see Arthur and William as anything other than social cliches.
Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
It slam-dunks documentaries that are so close-up to their subjects they cannot note the irony of adult commercialism and hard-sell hoopla overwhelming barely literate kids.
Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Epic is a word that suits Hoop Dreams well: The film seems to encompass not just a few individuals' stories, but draw archetypes out of them to personify the larger world around.
Hollis Griffin, Common Sense Media
Stunning documentary, great for older kids.
, Film4
The result not only follows the lives of the boys as they mature into men, suffering success and disaster along the way, but also provides a picture of tough inner-city life shorn of glamour or unnecessary melodrama.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Ao acompanharem seis anos das vidas de sua dupla de protagonistas, James e sua equipe criaram um filme revelador, complexo e, acima de tudo, profundamente tocante.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
It's the closest movie equivalent to the great American novel I've seen in years.
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
This is the best type of documentary, giving an intensely personal story you can't help but become involved in, and also raises fundamental issues about America in the 90s.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Boasting an epic scale, and a running time to match, this seminal docu, an absorbing anatomy of the American Dream in Chicago's inner-city, has more passion, compassion and suspense than most Hollywood fictional stories.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Unforgettable.
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Stunning documentary which should have won an Oscar.
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters
This remarkable, relentlessly compelling movie never shies away from its deep analysis of the professionalization of the game and college recruiting, but it also never lets go of the faith, energy, and desire embodied by Arthur and William.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Graham J

A documentary that is about much more than basketball, this is filmmaking at it's finest.
Jay H

This film isn't really about "Hoop Dreams." It's about two teenagers growing up in urban Chicago facing a plethora of life challenges, one of which happens to be basketball. As we follow Agee and Gates through their high school years, we see them mature mentally… More
This film isn't really about "Hoop Dreams." It's about two teenagers growing up in urban Chicago facing a plethora of life challenges, one of which happens to be basketball. As we follow Agee and Gates through their high school years, we see them mature mentally and psychologically as they struggle through difficulties, from a father who can't seem to act like an adult to trying to get a high enough ACT score to obtain a scholarship. The most striking thing about the film is that for tens of minutes at a time, you forget that you're watching a documentary, and it feels like not much more than another urban-kid-overcomes-life's-challenges film. That's not a good thing. The filmmakers have failed to continually remind the viewer that this is not a fictional film, resulting, at times, in an all-too-familiar plot structure. The film's moments of brilliance, though, come when the viewer is abruptly reminded that this film isn't fake at all. A scene toward the end of the film features an 18-year-old Agee playing a game of street basketball with his father, who for much of the film refuses to act his age. Sure enough, when Agee easily handles his aged, trash-talking father, his father dons an unsportsmanlike attitude fit for an eighth grader. No writer could ever write a scene like that, no director could ever create the realism of the scene, and most notably, no actor could ever imitate the immaturity shown by this middle-aged man It's a quality documentary, but the story it has to tell is, in many regards, unremarkable considering the many fictional films out there that tell a nearly identical story to this one.
Sophie B

I really enjoyed the story of this and liked how it followed the boys through a number of years through good and bad times. It showed how city kids only have one chance of getting out of poverty and that's by having a sporting talent which many children don't. The tough… More
I really enjoyed the story of this and liked how it followed the boys through a number of years through good and bad times. It showed how city kids only have one chance of getting out of poverty and that's by having a sporting talent which many children don't. The tough world of scholarships and the struggles faced by kids in need. I'm not a keen basketball player and I don't know much about the American school system so it was a bit confusing at times.
Michael S

Best documentary ever made.
Tim S

The BEST basketball movie ever made.
Aaron N

William Gates: People always say to me, "when you get to the NBA, don't forget about me." Well, I should've said back, "if I don't make it to the NBA, don't you forget about me." Easily one of the best documentaries that I have seen. This is a… More
William Gates: People always say to me, "when you get to the NBA, don't forget about me." Well, I should've said back, "if I don't make it to the NBA, don't you forget about me." Easily one of the best documentaries that I have seen. This is a documentary about two inner city kids making their way through school, playing basketball, hoping to get recruited into a good college, and eventually make their way into the pros. There is easily enough material just to show one of these kids, but this movie has two, and it is three hours of time, culled from more than 250 hours of footage. We see these kids from when they are 12-13 all the way to when they are 18-19. We see them recruited into high school, What happens to them, what happens to their families, injuries, grades in school, college plans, various games and championships, other parts of their lives. It is an absorbing work that has as much drama, tension, and plot dynamics as a regular movie.
Lesley N

Absorbing three-hour (never thought I'd write those two things in the same sentence) documentary about two teenagers & their hopes of becoming basketball champions. And you can look at Wikipedia to find out what happens next :-)
Brian R

"Hoop Dreams" is the greatest documentary film I have ever seen and the best of all time. The film is captivating, heartbreaking, exciting, powerful and most of all very moving. I was not only fascinated with Arthur Agee and William Gates but also with their families… More
"Hoop Dreams" is the greatest documentary film I have ever seen and the best of all time. The film is captivating, heartbreaking, exciting, powerful and most of all very moving. I was not only fascinated with Arthur Agee and William Gates but also with their families particularly Arthur's mother Sheila who is just as important as her son. There is a scene where she makes a hammerblow of a change in her life that that I've found so brilliant and so captivating, viewers will weep with real empathy and fascination. It is the best scene in the whole entire picture. "Hoop Dreams" tells a lot more then just basketball but about real life. The film closely follows the two men's struggles and successes, their family's struggles and the passionate dedication these two men and their families go through. A film this good hits the heart and boy did this picture ever touched me more ways then one. I will never forget the experience after watching this masterpiece. Everyone especially filmgoers should go see this film immediately. You will absolutely not be disappointed.
Tobias X

Holy god, this is the most poignant and uplifting of sports films for me. It makes ROCKY look gay. The film truly transcends the whole sports documentary honestly. It's crafted by filmmakers who are actually engrossed in the subjects they observe: I can't believe they… More
Holy god, this is the most poignant and uplifting of sports films for me. It makes ROCKY look gay. The film truly transcends the whole sports documentary honestly. It's crafted by filmmakers who are actually engrossed in the subjects they observe: I can't believe they actually spent over 5 years with these two ambitious High School basketball players and their families. True commitment on the part of the documentarians, and a testament to Kubrick's saying that "with film, time is golden." The picture never once conforms to manipulative documentary conventions for audience satisfaction. HOOP DREAMS is a work of art of the highest cinematic order for me. It manages to capture all of the multifarious emotions and bittersweet truths about the world of competitive sports. Definitely in my top 5 American documentaries of all time.
matt s

Tim, you were right, I didn't notice the length at all. This is an engrossing film with brilliant pacing. I'd love to see a follow-up, a where are they now type thing.
Wu C

One of the best docs I've seen.
Christopher B

A documentary that plays like a really good drama. Watching the two boys grow up is fascinating and at times depressing but definitely essential viewing. An incredibly well made documentary.
Richard F

Not just a movie about basketball, this is a journey into the lives of two families and their hopes, dreams, and struggles with adversity. This amazing project spans several years, and exposes the way these kids are exploited as well as the harsh realities of inner-city life. Caveat… More
Not just a movie about basketball, this is a journey into the lives of two families and their hopes, dreams, and struggles with adversity. This amazing project spans several years, and exposes the way these kids are exploited as well as the harsh realities of inner-city life. Caveat is that it is almost 3 years long, which isn't necessarily a con considering the size of the project and the quality of the picture.
Tom S

It's praised as the greatest basketball movie of all time, but it could have been more. The access the filmmakers gained is incredible, but it could have been assembled with more flair.