Film

He Got Game

Name: He Got Game
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Rosario Dawson, Milla Jovovich, Hill Harper

Sports drama

Spike Lee's 1998 sports drama uses basketball as the lens for examining incarceration, redemption, and the fraught relationship between a father and son. Denzel Washington and NBA star Ray Allen anchor this stylish, digressive film that's as interested in casual conversations and montage as it is in game footage. It's for people who love when cinema gets ambitious about genre.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burning family dramas where the real drama lives in tense, unhurried conversations and the pressure of a young man's future, and you don't mind a film that lets its argument breathe.

Skip it if you want the basketball to be the main event, since the court scenes are fewer than the talky, strained exchanges that fill a very long run time.

What it asks of you: Two hours and sixteen minutes of patience, with long stretches of quiet argument and a camera that lingers on faces more than on plays.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from He Got Game

The wildcard

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