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Created Oct 19, 2009 08:37PM PST • Edited Feb 02, 2019 07:49AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   Ain’t no better basketball movie than this boys-to-men documentary about LeBron James and his brothers-in-hoops. Even better, More Than a Game can be enjoyed equally well by non-basketball fans because it’s also a brilliant and touching portrait of half a dozen contemporary African-American males.

   Part of its brilliance is that King James – the superstar LeBron became – commands no more than a fair share of screen time, his story being intertwined and equally compelling as those of his teammates and their coach. Another part of its brilliance however is the phenomenon that is LeBron: his equanimity, his rootedness, his passing. The movie’s final share of brilliance is that it is a spectacularly shot and cannily crafted documentary that uses basketball to tell larger stories.

   The coach – Dru Joyce II – proves a workaday hero. Father to undersized point guard Dru Joyce III, the elder Joyce demonstrates in word and action the essential role of strong, stable male role models in the rearing of men. This fallible man – he half-confesses to riding his son too hard – proves that doing the right thing, even when not always done right, always wins out in the game of life.

   As basketball documentaries go, More Than a Game unseats previous champ Hoop Dreams. It’s tighter¹ yet with more dramatic moments – and a happy ending. Is it more entertaining than Hoosiers or Glory Road? Perhaps not, but they have the luxuries of fiction, professional acting, and the tricks of Hollywood movie-making on their side. So a tie is as good as a win in open competition.

   In short, More Than a Game is a must see for sports fans and for those interested in the sociology of contemporary African-Americans.
   -————————————-

   ¹ An hour and a half vs. almost three.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   None of the people in the movie are actors and only LeBron has any experience in front of the camera. Still all are natural, relaxed and compelling, especially in the footage from their high school days, but also in their recent flashback interviews.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Dayton native Kristopher Belman famously asked to film LeBron and his teammates when they began their high school careers, capturing priceless footage of practices, bus rides, time outs, and national championship locker room speeches. He’s spliced in this amazing archival footage with contemporary interviews, TV outtakes from the likes of ESPN, and return visits to childhood bedrooms.

    His film deftly shows the backstory of each member of the Fab Five (LeBron and his Dayton boyhood teammates), plus that of their coach, Dru Joyce II. These biographies unfold naturally through the course of the well-edited film, adding color and context to the dramatic wins and losses (yes, losses) the team experiences along the way. Importantly, each of the six main protagonists is framed by the mother, father, coach, brother or other key figures in their lives.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The film includes mere snippets of game footage, somewhat akin to how the TV show Friday Night Lights uses football games more as backdrops to human stories than as dramatic centerpieces. That said, the game footage is AMAZING, especially in showing the development of LeBron as a physical force, shutdown defender, team leader, and most notably as a passer of Magic Johnson-like panache.

    The scene of LeBron revisiting his high school bedroom shows that superstars who manage to stay real can go home again, even if everything has changed. The bare white walls of the room once were given over to posters of Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and the other basketball gods that LeBron would someday join. LeBron marvels that anyone could have managed to remove such thick appliqué.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.1

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Polite 1.3

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    The movie doesn’t hide the ethical violations that briefly sidelined LeBron in high school, though it does present them sympathetically. However, it doesn’t speak to the fact that LeBron used basketball – as Coach Dru instructed – not only to go to a better school but also to get fine clothes and huge diamond earrings while still in high school.

    Is using basketball like that okay? It worked out for The Chosen One (as LeBron is known) and his teammates, all of whom are on successful paths in life, the film informs us. But it leads countless others astray, a trend about which More Than a Game is silent.

    Finally, just how great a basketball player is LeBron James?

    While he’s yet to win an NBA championship – let alone six – he’s the best candidate yet to be Michael Jordan’s successor as basketball’s single most transcendent player. Notwithstanding that both wear number 23 (James choosing it in homage to MJ), LeBron is a distinctly different player than Jordan, unlike Kobe, the previous pretender to the crown. LeBron is more physical, befitting a forward. He’s also a more instinctive and generous passer than was MJ.

    One characteristic they share is each is unlike any who came before — the very definition of greatness.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0