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Every new high school basketball documentary must contend with the long shadow of the 1994 masterpiece “Hoop Dreams.” While it’s nowhere near as ambitious, “Killer Bees” fits squarely in its tradition, engaging and humane storytelling that uses the drama of basketball to tell a deeper story about race, class, and the excitement and heartache of young lives careening toward adulthood.
Directed by Benjamin and Orson Cummings and produced by, among others, Shaquille O’Neal, the movie tracks one season in the powerhouse basketball program of the Bridgehampton Killer Bees, a predominantly African-American and working-class team in an area — the Hamptons — famous as a getaway for the spectacularly rich. In using this juxtaposition as a metaphor for growing inequality and the shrinking middle class, the filmmakers are helped considerably by the coach, Carl Johnson, who is both a charismatic character and a sharp observer of his town; his assistant Joe Zucker, whose day job is as a celebrated artist (this might explain why the art dealer Larry Gagosian is another producer of the film); and a clueless, Maserati-driving real estate agent, the perfect stand-in for the forces of gentrification.
While the players are the central subjects, the movie doesn’t dig as deeply into their lives as “Hoops Dreams” does with its subjects. Instead, “Killer Bees” often cuts to footage of games from previous decades or interviews with stars from earlier eras. The movie is ultimately less about the players or even the engrossingly shot games than the idea of basketball as a tradition, one that imbues lives with meaning and bonds a community. This is under threat from the changing composition of the town, and what makes this story compelling is that the outcome of that contest remains uncertain.
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.
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