Boogie

With so much on the line, Boogie just sort of dribbles to nothingness.

Writer/director Eddie Huang's flawed feature does have flashes to recommend it, particularly in depicting matters of the heart between Boogie and a no-nonsense Black classmate.

I really wanted to like this movie, but honestly it's really tedious.

The story of a Chinese American kid's hoop dreams is hard to enjoy when the depictions of the game are so wrongheaded.

Boogie is at times unpolished but it offers a compelling and sympathetic portrayal of the title character and avoids excessive melodrama or a too-facile ending.

Whatever desire to get real that the film was born out of, it ultimately feels like a sign that it's time to do some growing up.

Not only is the film simply boring and unenjoyable, but its confused identity leads to an experience that seemingly will satisfy no individual audience member completely.

Eddie Huang's directorial debut suffers from a poor script, uneven acting, and a lack of originality.

What it lacks in story originality, it more than makes up for in believably angry naturalism.

[One wonders what] could have been had Huang simply had any sort of faith in both his material and the intelligence of his viewing audience.