Movie Breakdown: Boogie (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
I haven’t seen or read Eddie Huang’s Fresh Off The Boat but I was briefly obsessed with his Vice travel-cooking show, Huang’s World. His persona was always smart but relatable and willing to hold his ground with big named people. He wrote and directed this, so, I’m at least curious.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Boogie is a very small story lost in a sprawling world of confusion and subtext. Boogie (newcomer Taylor Takahashi) is an aspiring high school basketball player in New York City. He’s recently jumped schools to the “hot trash” City Prep Dragons so he can, eventually, square off against the his sort-of-rival Monk (the late Pop Smoke in a brooding performance). Boogie’s a baller but a selfish one who’s distracted by a n’er-do-well father/manager, an overbearing mother with her own selfishness issues, and questions about what he’s going to do next. Really, it’s a story about a kid who wants to play basketball, but he’s held back (but maybe pushed forward) by his background. In first time director Eddie Huang’s hands it’s part inspirational basketball flick, part rom-com, part family drama, part street-ball throwdown, part high school comedy – look, it’s a lot of things, and sadly the weight is too much for the center to bear and the story of Boogie reaching for the stars, never fully gels into much. Taylor Takahashi’s inexperience doesn’t help either. He’s got the physicality and basketball skills to make the athletic aspects believable but in the darker emotional scenes he’s really only able to either be smug or stiff and because the character is written purposefully unlikable, it’s hard to ever relate or cheer for him. A film with this much definitely has positive aspects – it’s filmed beautifully and the hip-hop soundtrack definitely creates a solid mood – but it feels like the work of a first director trying to do everything all at once.
One Last Thought:
The relationship between Boogie and Eleanor (Taylour Paige) starts with Boogie telling her she has a “nice vagina” in a high school weight room. To say it’s hard to believe at points is an understatement.
