Wolves

The reviewer who characterized this film as B- movie entertainment must possess unattainably high standards. Having never coached basketball, I can't honestly rate "Wolves" in terms of what must be a fairly specialized field (as one critic here has done). From my admittedly limited perspective, I found "Wolves" to be an intelligent, and involving melodrama.

Shannon is great/ Not quite Rudy but still, great!

Greetings again from the darkness. Anthony is a good kid with a bright future. He's a star basketball player and a bright student, and has a loyal girlfriend and seemingly normal home life. It comes as no surprise that most of those elements either aren't as smooth as they seem, or are more complex than on the surface.

Writer/director Bart Freundlich (known for his 1997 debut feature The Myth of Fingerprints, and for being married to Julianne Moore) slowly unveils the cracks in Anthony's (Taylor John Smith) façade. His college professor dad (the always great Michael Shannon) is a drunk, abusive man with a short fuse and severe gambling addiction. He's the kind of guy who is always working on his great American novel, while juggling gambling debts and throwing down quiet jealousy of his son. His mother (Carla Gugino) has good intentions and clearly wants the best for her son, but she's just not capable of standing up to the menace. It plays like a Maslow's hierarchy of crappy parenting.

There are plenty of clichés that we've seen in many movies, but it's a pleasure to see so much real basketball being played. Anthony has a sweet jump shot and a sweet girlfriend named Victoria (Zazie Beetz), and the interpersonal relationships all have nuances that come across as real life. Even Uncle Charlie (Chris Bauer) seems torn about which family member most needs his protection. Emotional-physical-financial strains abound and it all seems to crash down on Anthony as he strives to earn a college scholarship by impressing the coaches from Cornell.

As Anthony navigates the choppy waters towards independence, the film teases us with some sub-plots that could have been further explored. Anthony hits it off with an older, wiser street baller (John Douglas Thompson) who starts mentoring him. We also are given hope that Anthony's mom will actually do something for her son rather than regretting what she hasn't done. Lastly there is a quick tease as to an alternative past that would make some sense – though whether that's real or imagined is left up to the viewer's perspective.

The film ultimately plays like a Disney film that utilizes an inordinate number of "F-words", and it even reminds a bit of the Paul Giamatti movie Win Win. It's the acting and the periodic sequences of real emotion that allow us to remain interested in the characters right up until the end … even if our hopes differ from one of Anthony's own parents.

I must admit all the main characters are done very well, especially Michael Shannon as the a-hole of a dad. He drinks too much, gambles unwisely, doesn't respect his college writing students, and treats his teen son badly. All this ultimately comes to a head and there really aren't any winners.

The son is the star of the basketball team, the Wolves. He has hopes of a scholarship to Cornell. But he has yet learned to take control in tough situations. Some street basketball in New York with some rough characters helps him grow.

Carla Gugino, one of my favorites, is effective as the mother.

My wife and I were entertained, but watching the family spiral down was difficult to watch. On DVD from our public library.

Saw this on neftlix. It wasn't about murder or serial killers, or dystopia like the rest. Just a family drama, which is refreshing.

A story about an urban white kid who plays basketball is unique unto itself. As was this kid. He was kind of soft and reserved, and he wasn't trying to be "street" like his teammates.

Shannon and Gugino were excellent as the parents, as was the guy playing the high school coach. So plenty to praise here.

But of course as professional reviewers have noted, there were too many clichés. The general metaphor aspect of the title was fine. But injuries, girls, betting, it was just too loaded.

I am always a fan of back-story. We heard that his mom met his uncle first, but we didn't hear from her about what initially attracted her to his dad. HIs confidence and popularity? Let's hear her reflect.

What does the kid want to major in at college? Does he like writing like his father? His dad seemed racist against Asians, but he doesn't say a word about his son's interracial relationship.

It's a Catholic school. Is the kid or his parents religious at all? We never see the dad go to confession, which is a cliché itself, but would still have added an interesting dimension.

The best aspect of the story was the idea that a jock has to be tough and dig deep. That it's very hard to walk a fine line between sensitivity and aggression. To have both. One of the great challenges of young manhood. This could have been explored much better. Clearly he inherited his mom's sensitive side. But everyone else was trying to toughen him up for his own good.

Could he still be a loveable character if he developed a thick skin and a pipeline to adrenaline? Were we supposed to assume that his final howl and chest-pound was indication that he was a new man? That he had learned how to tap into "beast-mode??