38 at the Garden

You don't have to be a basketball fan to appreciate this profoundly moving, very topical short documentary. It goes to the heart of the problem of stereotypes, bias, and racism we are currently experiencing in this country.

But it's more than that, it's also the story of how parents can support their child's dream, and not theirs. It's an Asian American story that inspired and will inspire generation of young kids, and hopefully parents as well. Relive the "wave off" and imagine what that gesture can mean for people that doubt themselves, because they are not supposed to be good at something.

On top of that, it's awesome to relive Linsanity, that brief but epic moment of greatness and making the impossible, possible.

I love sports documentaries more than watching sports. So many good stories out there about how someone beat the odds. This story is a perfect example. Incredibly inspiring thing to witness. It makes you want to get to work on things. It's also a prefect example of preaching and victimization. I remember right when this story broke and reading about it. I don't recall one single thing about race and soon i became a fan before seeing the guy play. Was i surprised, sure. Did i or anyone else care, no. But the way the story is told here, is not how I remembered it. Took a perfectly good story and made it about something else.

I love it! This isn't just story about one person. It is a story about a community. It is brilliantly done, where the experience of one individual is a collective experience that affect a whole community. Watching this, show us all that even the greatest and must successful person is hindered by sterotypes that affects us all.

It is great to hear the story of what is going on, but what makes this movie more different, is to hear the voices of those who is outside seeing these events, and how it affected them. How the event itself may not have been a huge action (even though 38 points against Lakers & Kobe is no small feat), can influence and impact many in the community. And create glimpse of hope. The true American dream.

This isn't just an underdog story. It is a story about someone who was put into a box, and that person proved that he is more than inside the box. And how a whole community felt the same way, and see him as inspiration of what one can be, if they just fought instead of follow the expectations.

What Jeremy accomplished and still stands for should be a source of hope and inspiration for everyone. This film features an all-star cast of Asian American luminaries, including the inimitable Hasan Minhaj dropping some truth bombs. Frank Chi establishes himself as an exciting new voice in storytelling with this debut short. Laugh, cry and understand the Asian American experience just that much better. The animation also deserves a special call out, helping to deepen the story and add moments of sublime levity that punctuates the narrative flow in a really nice way. All around the positive vibes we all need.

It's nice looking back on a fun time in sports, and I get chills looking back at a lot of the moments from Linsanity. But the quality of this doc is sub-par, and that's being generous. Youtube videos have done far better than this. While the main message of Asian pride and combating Asian hate is important and needs to be heard, it is also massively over-done, and gets tired. It's sad because a lot of people will tune this doc out because 2/3rds of it is solely devoted to that fact; we just want to re-live that awesome moment in 2012 that we all remember.

It's far too short. They could have gone far deeper with this subject but it's too surface level and focuses on the wrong things too much of the time. But since it's not great, maybe it isn't a bad thing that it's this short, because I just wanted it to be over.

Lin's individual "storytelling" is just strange. He isn't getting interviewed, he's reading off of a script. Really? Everyone else is getting asked questions, but he's just reciting terribly contrived lines with no depth at all and it feels so phony. But on the plus side, Hasan Minhaj, Shumpert, and Chandler gave some very nice bits of info that were absolutely fantastic.

Overall, not really worth a watch, I'd just recommend perusing various YouTube videos on Linsanity to get a more electric experience. Bummer :(