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"A penetrating and ultimately heartbreaking inventory of hard lessons learned on and off the [basketball] court." – Variety
Josh and Benny Safdie turn their camera on Lenny Cooke, a ridiculously talented junior basketballer from Brooklyn groomed too soon for a future that would never materialise.
In 2001, Cooke was the most sought-after high-school basketball player in America, considered better than his contemporaries – LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire – in that year's NBA draft. That over a decade later Cooke ended up playing exactly zero minutes in the NBA has become one of American sports' most vexing conundrums.
Executive produced by (and featuring) current Chicago Bulls starting centre Joakim Noah (son of tennis star, Yannick), Lenny Cooke expertly combines footage from an abandoned 2001 documentary project with heartbreaking contemporary images of a boy seduced by the promise of untold riches and stratospheric fame.
"A touching filmmaking gesture, allowing a man to reclaim his past on his own terms." – The AV Club
Find out more about the Talking Pictures panel event related to this screening.