Rating: 
Summary: A MUST SEE!!!!
Review: If you're looking for a cross-section into the world of drugs, forget "Trainspotting". It's entertaining, but specifically designed and intended for a Pulp Fictionesque underground cult following. "Basketball Diaries" is not only a true story, but much more honest, direct, and realistic. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jim Carroll, real life poet and ex-junkie. Carroll and his friends start off averagely enough as a group of lower class punks out looking for cheap thrills. And though their after school lifestyle is less than admirable, they do take their basketball seriously and are stars of their high school team. Carroll also takes his writing seriously, and some of the poetry in the movie is pretty impressive, I must say. Carroll and Co. are not exactly characters you sympathize with. Before they even descend into hardcore drug use, they're already robbing rival basketball teams and committing other assorted acts of selfishness. Their hospitalized friend Bobby was such a creep in his pre-cancer days that I honestly didn't feel anything at all when he finally died. His friends' post-funeral drunken eulogies of him being caught by a priest in the school bathroom during the sticky finale of oral sex made me wonder if the purpose of this revelation was to move me to applaud the jerk's death. However, the purpose of this film was less about character integrity as it was about life's downward spiral brought on by drug use. And it was in this capacity that the film did an outstanding job, better than any other I've seen. DiCaprio's cold turkey and relapse scenes were excellent, and MUCH more accurate than the ones in "Trainspotting", which just showed some kid sweating and screaming at a few comically stupid hallucinations. As someone who's seen this happen, I can attest to the reality of the desperation, crime, poverty, hopeless addiction, and the complete self-destruction that comes with cocaine and heroin that this movie displays. "Traffic" fell slightly short of showing how much drugs had affected Michael Douglass' family, but had no choice due to the multi-perspective design of the movie. "Blow" simply glorified drugs and lionized a scumbag drug dealer. "Basketball Diaries" is a true story that is probably similar to the stories of many others. Learn as much as you can from this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: A gritty, realistic film with wonderful acting performances.
Review: "The Basketball Diaries" is a gritty, uncompromising look at a basically good guy's decent into heroin hell. The cast, headed by Leonardo DiCaprio, is superb; the screenplay doesn't pull any punches. Realistic, shocking, eye-opening, the film gives DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg the chance to display their true talents and really ACT -- these fellows do a terrific job because it all looks so REAL. What a great film with an ending I guarantee you won't expect -- connoisseurs of fine films and DiCaprio fans should check it out -- this is a real movie with a real script and real acting, and the characters and storyline aren't larger than life. They're real as life, and that's not something you see on TV every day. END
Rating:
Summary: well done
Review: This is the most accurate depiction of dope addiction I've seen (drugstore cowboy too). From sticking a cutoff straw in a bag for a toot in the highschool bathroom or lockerroom, to the sick daydreams, to the fiending, the pure exileration of copping bags, to the allure of the needle. I started doing dope at 15 (1994)and stopped at 19, 6 years ago in 3 days. I saw this movie in 97 and I havent seen it since. Definitly not a movie you will want to watch over and over.
Rating:
Summary: Those are the people who died.......
Review: Jim Carroll's autobiographical life story is the basis for this cult classic of the early 90's. Leonardio DiCaprio plays Jim Carroll a poet writing basketball star at a Catholic prep school in Manhatten who's future comes tumbling down when he gets addicted from glue sniffing to heroin. Mark Wahlberg co stars as Mickey his partner in crime as they skip school and do drugs, Jim realizes his future of becoming a pro basketball player are gone when he sees a local kid that he used to run with that decided to stay clean makes it to college ball. Eventually his mother kicks him out and he is saved by a black preacher an ex drug user from the streets takes him in. A powerful story about addiction and the negative affects it has on one's dreams. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance was amazing & makes you wonder how accurate it was of Carroll. The soundtrack also is amazing, essential to collection & a must see film.
Rating:
Summary: A gritty, realistic film with wonderful acting performances.
Review: "The Basketball Diaries" is a gritty, uncompromising look at a basically good guy's decent into heroin hell. The cast, headed by Leonardo DiCaprio, is superb; the screenplay doesn't pull any punches. Realistic, shocking, eye-opening, the film gives DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg the chance to display their true talents and really ACT -- these fellows do a terrific job because it all looks so REAL. What a great film with an ending I guarantee you won't expect -- connoisseurs of fine films and DiCaprio fans should check it out -- this is a real movie with a real script and real acting, and the characters and storyline aren't larger than life. They're real as life, and that's not something you see on TV every day. END
Rating: 
Summary: Like a drug, film has very high highs and very low lows
Review: Don't take my middle of the road three star rating as a sign of apathy. This movie is one you will either love or hate, and in my case I very much enjoyed certain things and very strongly disliked others. Obivously the big draw in this movie is Leonardo DiCaprio. I have to say, he does an outstanding job with this role. In the true story of drugged-out high schooler Jim Carroll, he thrives on the type of script Academy Awards are made out of: tons of opportunities for him to be high, low, enraged, in sorrow. There are a lot of opportunities to use his physicality in the role, and he seizes every one. In particular I think of his drug withdrawal sequence and he and his friends' mourning the death of a close friend by getting drunk and playing basketball in the rain. The plot has a sixteen year old Jim Carroll playing high school basketball. Three of his teammates are his best friends, and when not on the basketball court, they tend to find all kinds of "innocent" trouble around New York (knocking over food vendor carts, for instance). Another outlet of energy for Jim alone is his diary where he records sensations he feels in his young life. His search for sensation and his friends' desire to find trouble coalesces in experiments with drugs like cocaine and herione. As Jim notes in the monologue of the movie, there is no such thing as a part-time addict. They fall further and further into the downward spiral in an effort to evade pressures from school teachers, coaches, and parents. Some of the scenes in this movie are very gripping and visceral. However, the links between these scenes tend to be bogged down in poor directing. I realize this movie was a lower budgeted one, but there really is no excuse for having a movie made in 1995 that looks like it was made in 1985. While the performance by DiCaprio is extraordinary, the directing is lackluster. Poor camera angles, helpless lighting, bit part actors who look and sound amateur; those should all be blamed on the director. However, this movie is worthwhile if you are one who has a particular interest in either Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg (he stars as a main character and one of Jim Carroll's best friends), or the subject matter. I have to say I thought "Trainspotting" handled the subject of drug use extremely well, but this movie is right up there in the ability to depict the sensations felt by those addicted.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty, Powerful And Well-Acted
Review: The name Jim Carroll may not be familiar to mainstream, radio-friendly listeners, but to those who know about rock poetry and Punk Carroll is one of the genre's greatest word-players along with Patti Smith and has recorded two especially noteworthy works, "Catholic Boy" and "The People Who Died," which sound like wonderfully gritty hybrids of beat poetry and Punk rock. "The Basketball Diaries" is based on Carroll's novel of the same name which is a testament of his days living in the streets of New York during which he became addicted to heroin, saw friends either die or spiral down into self-destruction and eventually found his talent for words as an exit out of the hell he was trapped in. As a movie, the story comes alive with a powerful impact. Director Scott Kalvert does not make the movie into an obvious anti-drug message, instead the story of Carroll's teen years is simply just...told. There is almost a documentary-like realism in how scenes are put together, nothing feels false but instead chillingly real. Anyone who has lived in an environment like this or attended high school in the more gritty, violent sections of a city can instantly relate to the people and events. The actors bring these characters to live with great believability, Leonardo DiCaprio broke through with this role, but even his recent work in films like "Titanic" and "Gangs Of New York" seems more tame compared to his brilliant, effective performance here. The scenes where Carroll is addicted to heroin and lives in the junkie underworld are performed by DiCaprio with a vivid realism that is disturbing. One reviewer here complained about the movie missing a plot, plot is not something central here, the story is central and it is the story of a very talented young man gripped by addiction in a world where vices and the darker side of life can easily suck you in. And of course, there is some great music here by Soundgarden, The Doors, The Cult and a great highlight which is Carroll performing "Catholic Boy" with Pearl Jam. In the history of rock music there are many popular stories of addiction from Iggy Pop to Scott Weiland, Carroll's is brought to life in a movie that breathes and doesn't need to throw the message in your face, the message is right there in the story itself.
Rating:
Summary: The Honest Truth
Review: Most of these people on here that wrote reviews have no idea what they are talking about.This movie was great and anybody that has been in the place of Leo's chatacter knows how well this movie was made.Anybody that has never done the things that go on in this movie might not understand the way drugs take over your life.All the characters play good parts but Leo's acting when he is kicking heroin is the best i have seen yet and the most accurate.I give this movie two thumbs up and highly recommend buying it.
Rating:
Summary: ACTOR IS BORN !!!
Review: Two thumbs up for this great up-coming classic. Leo was great and so was scene stealer James Madio along with Mark Wahlberg. I think James Madio Has Risen...Looking forward to watching his career. Movie holds you till the very end.
Rating:
Summary: Shining performance by DiCaprio
Review: Forget "Titanic" and "The Gangs of New York", one of Leonardo DiCaprio's best performances is right here in the '90s film "The Basketball Diaries". I'll admit, when I first saw this movie I was a prepubescent wanting to capture Leo in all his glory at the height of the "Titanic" craze. I didn't get this movie at all the first time I watched it, but I could sure tell it was graphic, violent, and at times, very sickenly disturbing.
It took a few more years till I could digest "Diaries" and appreciate it for what it really is: an indie movie with strong performances and grit.
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