Dribbles

By F.R.

THE AMERICAN GAME

Directed and Written by Jay Freund and David Wolf

With so many talented documentary-film makers about, it is sad to see a serious budget in the hands of the hacks who made The American Game. The movie's problems begin with its title: Since when is basketball the American game?

The co-directors follow two high school basketball stars, a black from Brooklyn and a small-town Wasp from Lebanon, Ind., as they endure the victories and defeats of senior year. The overall message is a real doozy: sports are a metaphor for society. From this profound insight, the film embraces all the sociological idiocies that Albert Brooks satirized in Real Life.

The American Game breaks the news that ghetto blacks are poorer than middle-class whites. We also learn that basketball teams play to win, that coaches can be tough taskmasters, that pretty girls and college recruiters fawn over the best players. If these tedious observations were served up in an interesting way, the movie might at least offer some entertainment. No dice. The American Game is a survey of film-making cliches. There are soupy graphics, split-screen effects, a platitudinous narration. The editing is so splintered that even the few potentially good scenes, those set at the heroes' homes and locker rooms, are too short to allow the characters breathing room. There is also an insistent musical score that sounds like an endless track of commercial jingles. "You'll have riches and fame," intones the title number, "if you play the American game." Tennis, anyone?

--F.R.

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