The mischief soon gives way to misery as Jim and friends become entrapped by the seductive forces of heroin. The second half of ‘The Basketball Diaries’ details the familiar course of the addict: the loss of everything meaningful--his sports goals, family and friendships.

Directed by Scott Kalvert, the picture contains a handful of striking images in a sea of ordinary ones. Most telling are the brief fantasy sequences in which Jim imagines himself gunning down the entire school, and another in which he sees himself being blown away while making a

‘The position of the viewer arises not so much from his or her identification with the characters, but from a deeper involvement of the story told by the film…. The realist film contains a number of discourses, or perspectives on reality offered by various characters, but the films narrative structure operates to arrange them in hierarchy.’

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