“The Basketball Diaries” (1995) - I just watched this for the first time in YEARS

I've always said Leonardo's best movies were the pre-Titanic ones. If you liked this one OP, you should also watch "This Boy's Life" from 1993, another great film of his.

His films were much more daring and edgy before Titanic. Now all his films are "safe".

R1 probably because Titanic shot him into Global Superstardom and that means tons of $$$$. He went from wanting to be an actor to being distracted by the money and fame and becoming a movie star.

R2 Yes, but he has hundreds of millions now. You would think from time to time he would do an independent or more risky movie to remind people of his range.

I can see why River Phoenix was originally wanted for this role.

I may be one of the few that never found River Phoenix attractive nor that good an actor.

R5 You're not the only one. He was like another Johnny Depp IMO - overrated in looks and acting.

Isn't there a scene where Leo is getting a blowjob from a john in a bog and acting like he is in agony, which never made sense to me because he is the hooker and he should have been sucking the cock, and who doesn't like getting head

Please, his withdrawal scenes from heron, no less, were way too tame. Limp. Like getting a wart removed. Trust me, my detox was hell -- and it was only BEER. So can't even imagine hardcore drugs. He should have gone for broke, not a little sweat and a tear or two.

Wa stage blowjob from a dude? Majority of straight men don’t like getting their cocks sucked by men and can’t even get hard to it.

And there are people that will pay for you to let them suck you off, especially a teenage blonde attractive white guy like him.

R8 I’ve seen people detox and it’s not the same for everyone. It’s a hard time for all but some cope better.

Some people also enjoy giving BJs more than receiving and get off harder to giving one than taking one.

I never can get off to being blown. Ever.

I agree with everything said upthread. Leo was MUCH better in his early roles. Ever since The Beach, all his characters have had the exact same mannerisms/body language, and he tries so overly hard. The Departed and Great Gatsby were particularly cringeworthy. The only thing I kind of liked him in in the last 20 FUCKING YEARS was Revolutionary Road. The body language was the same as always, but IIRC, the overacting wasn't as bad as in other roles.

I'm likely gonna watch Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but just by looking at the trailer I can tell that Leo's performance will be disappointing as usual.

As for Basketball Diaries, what impressed me the most was the scene where that creepy coach (who later molests him in the shower) approaches him and invites him to hang out and have a pizza or something like that. It is brilliant foreshadowing, and mostly because of Leo's acting. You can see how uncomfortable Jim is, although he barely moves his face. Actually I think that must have been much harder to play than the withdrawal or the scene with his mother at the end because it's so subtle.

I much preferred "This Boy's Life" and his work in it. "Basketball Diaries" was just too tame, too Lifetime TV, even/especially for back then.

Leo will always have a place in my cinematic heart but one thing gets in the way more and more -- that squeaky voice. Just awful, especially as he gets older and it doesn't.

I'd say his voice was a bit deeper/stronger in his early 20s than it is now. But maybe it just felt that way to me because he was a slender, babyfaced young guy, and you didn't expect him to sound manly.

Mark Wahlberg was such a natural at being violent and throwing out racial slurs

Didn't Juliette Lewis play a crack-ho in this? For some reason, that's about all I remember about it.

R7 Yes.

R16 Yes.

R16 yes. She’s in like 2 or 3 scenes.

This is a good scene

According to Leo himself, there was no tension between him and Mark Wahlberg on set; he just wasn't sure Wahlberg was the right person for the role until he actually met him.

I liked the book and Jim Carrols music, too.

R8 Well, to be fair, they told him he was detoxing from egret, which is much different from heron.

There were a few slower songs in the movie that I loved. At the end, and in the scene where Jim jerks off on the rooftop. Not sure if these were written by Jim Carroll.

Did Seal's "Crazy" play in the film?

I thought Leo was fantastic in BD. My only issue - and I have an issue with all sports movie in this respect - there's no way Leo could EVER have been all City basketball player. He was so uncoordinated. As an ex-athlete, watching non athletes play characters who are supposed to be great athletes is so distracting. Pulls me out of the movie. Every time.

Leo is good in it. But the movie took this engaging, sleazy, homoerotic book and turned it into an Afterschool Special. It's pretty bad, and has aged badly. Again, DiCaprio is good in it, though, and it has good music.

I'm not sure which scene, but I think it did, [R24]

I wish he had the guts to do another homoerotic or gay role. Like in "This Boy's Life" where the gay boy kisses him while they're playing the piano.

I agree, R26. There are a few scenes I enjoyed, mostly because of the atmosphere and music. But the movie as a whole didn't really 'get' me. And I wasn't sure what decade it was supposed to be.

It was supposed to be the 90s 🙄🙄🙄

[quote] And I wasn't sure what decade it was supposed to be.

That's good because it doesn't seem dated.

When is Leo going to do a gay role where he fucks a guy and shows his ass?

R30 No it wasn't

[quote] When is Leo going to do a gay role where he fucks a guy and shows his ass?

There's that rumour that Leo was in talks to star in the infamous Frisk (actually I read it here on datalounge), and that this is how he met Craig Chester, the guy who outed him back in '95.

I've never watched that movie, but I read a few reviews and ... damn. I'd love to know if that rumour is true. Looking at other things Leo has done in the 90s, I wouldn't put it past him to have been interested in that project. But I'm not sure if he could have transitioned to mainstream roles after that. He did Total Eclipse of course, but that one was probably tame compared to Frisk.

R29 right? It almost felt like it was originally going to be a period piece, but half-way through filming they changed their minds. Or just didn't have the budget to continue with it.

R34 Well he's already a mainstream established star, so he needs to do something more controversial. A gay role would be great.

A gay role can damage his career!

R37 It wasn't a gay role, the film had a real horror of the yucky 'gay' stuff

Sadly I don't think he's going to do anything controversial/interesting anytime soon. He comes off so pedantic and conservative these days. And he seems desperate to be perceived as a 'man's man'.

He's a shadow of his former self.

R39 It's sad because he has the range (as his pre-Titanic movies show), but yeah, he seems more interested in maintaining his aging frat boy image.

He's very popular with low IQ douchebro types these days.

Have you seen an interview with him lately? He's so fucking irritating now. His gestures bug the hell out of me. No idea what happened, he was quite charming when younger.

R42 Could you give us a link to show us an example? I haven't seen an interview with him recently, but in most of the ones I've seen, he just sounds dull and rehearsed, like his PR people instructed him on how to answer.

Money, fame, whores, and drugs got to him like most celebs.

He believes his own hype.

.....didn't he also end climate change?

[quote].....didn't he also end climate change?

Yes, and to pat himself on the back, he flies around on private jets and sails on huge yachts.

This is one very recent interview. As I said, it's mostly his gestures that annoy me. 'Rehearsed' is probably the right term. He just strikes me as completely fake now.

I wonder what he's like in real life.

The director of the movie, Scott Kalvert, committed suicide in 2014.

R47 He is fat in real life

R48 sad. I wonder why.

There's not much about him on the internet. Apparently he only made one more feature film besides Basketball Diaries.

R47 Yeah, that's how his demeanor has been in any interview I've seen him in post-Titanic - rehearsed, boring, and devoid of personality.

BTW, am I the only one who doesn't like that Margot Robbie cunt? Why is she in ANOTHER movie with him? Can't stand her.

R52 he probably recommended her.

While making Basketball Diaries, he was given the choice to play James Dean in a biopic or play Arthur Rimbaud in Agnieszka Holland's Total Eclipse. Jim Carroll (who wrote The Basketball Diaries) advised him to do Total Eclipse.

It flopped. And Basketball Diaries didn't do very well either. I think he got worried for his career, so started going with safer choices. When that worked for him, he never went back. Though I guess working with QT gives him some indie cred.

Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries was based in the late 1960s. Filming it in then current mid 1990s NYC lost much of it's intended nuances. But director Scott Kalvert had a very limited budget and could not do a period piece. Overall it was a good film, and DiCaprio gave an excellent performance.

I think it's pretty bad. Too after school special-ish. Touches like having him lecture a group of kids on the dangers of drugs are just eyeroll inducing.

It reeks of budget problems and studio interference.

Gilbert!

Awww, Arnie. Still his greatest performance. Hands down.

R57 I thought the line was, I could have drownded (sic ) .

Leo was absolutely amazing in Gilbert Grape. I really thought he was mentally handicapped.

Sort of reminds me of JLaw in Winter's Bone. Before both got more famous than Oprah, they were actually talented.

R59 is right!

I've never read the book.

However, there's a video from the movie's premiere on gettyimages (not sure if you're allowed to link to that site, but it's easy to find if you enter Leonardo DiCaprio 1995 into the search bar). They interviewed Leo on the red carpet, and if you read between the lines, he seems to be aware that the film doesn't really do the book justice. First he says, 'It's a good film, people are gonna watch it' or something like that, but then he goes on to explain how difficult it was to turn a diary into a film script, that they had to leave out a lot of stuff etc. But, he says, 'it definitely covers the drug aspect of the book, that's definitely there' (in other words, there's a lot that is missing).

I like Margot Robbie, R52, but I have to admit that I find her pretty limited as an actress, and she doesn't look like Sharon Tate at all. But apparently, Tate's sister was impressed with her performance.

R63 Yeah sounds like he was trying hard to be honest, yet diplomatic. The things that have made the book a minor classic are largely absent from the movie. Again, anything that was bold and audacious about the book is absent. I suspect Leo knew when he gave that interview that the movie COULD have been a classic. But in order to do that, they would've had to portray Jim Carroll as basically unlikable. He was an addict who stole, lied, cheated, manipulated, and discarded people. Clearly, the producers got cold feet, softened Jim beyond recognition, and it became a fucking Nancy Reagan "Just Say No!" PSA. I have no doubt that DiCaprio was gravely disappointed that this book that he revered turned into that.

DiCaprio was fucking hot, and he did want to play a sexy, bisexual sociopath. He damn near did American Psycho as his follow-up to Titanic, until the powers that be (agents, managers) talked him out of it. He finally got to do it with Wolf of Wall Street, as he was just about to age out of being about to play a hot, sexy anything.

I'll tell you what though- I got my hands on a copy of Don's Plum, the 1995 movie he made that was a student project, and not supposed to ever be seen by the public. He's fucking amazing in it. Full disclosure: I have a thing for young, hot, privledged douchebros. And that's exactly what he plays. He's hot as shit in it, and that's what Jim Carroll would've been in Basketball Diaries had the movie been faithful to the book. It was a 21 year old Leonardo DiCaprio playing a version of himself, looking as beautiful as he did in Titanic and Romeo and Juliet. Talkin' shit with his bros, scammin' on hotgirls, and basically being the hot-ass alpha douchebag he was at the time.

If you can get your hands on Don's Plum (not easy because Leo sued to have it repressed) do so. It's the role I'd always wanted to see him in at that age.

But R65 , if he’s so good in this amazing movie, why is he actively trying to repress it? Doesn’t compute.

R66 precisely because he's playing a thinly veiled version of himself. Too much truth there.

Look, I know he died to keep it repressed- that's a fact. That he's amazing in it is just my opinion. And, as I said, I'm biased because I'm very turned on by him in it.

*sued to keep it repressed. Damn autocorrect.

wasn't the issue that it was just too amateurish, a student film basically not meant for release? He had no issue playing a douche movie star in "Celebrity" post "Titanic".

R69 Don's Plum is no worse than Celebrity in my opinion. Again, I think the character he plays in it is at least partly based on him, and he's pretty vile.

I could just be the principle of it. When he agreed to do it, there was an understanding that it would never be generally released. I wasn't there, I don't know exactly why. But I do think it's a damn site better than BBall Diaries.

Damn sight? Whatever.

I watched this. Leo's NYC accent isn't very good, he still sounds so Southern California. The movie feels like a bunch of miniature episodes stitched together rather than a cohesive story. Which is understandable as it had a low budget and probably got rushed to release. It would have been more interesting seeing the film show Jim's life in prison and attempts to rehabilitate and work his way to becoming a respected poet that speaks at schools. But it had time restraints. I do wonder how River would have been in this film, unlike Leo, River was athletic and very fit and could be believable as a high school jock. Mark Wahlberg was good in this like he was in Fear because he just played himself as a crazy racist violent thug. Also, the guy who played Neutron was hot.

His pre-Titanic movies were great! After Titanic, Leo’s roles got more and more boring and safe. Also notice how he never did any roles that explored gay themes. In Total Eclipse he played gay. In This Boy’s Life he befriends the gay kid and they kiss while they play the piano. And in Basketball Diaries he lets a guy blow him for money.

After Titanic, he never did a gay role again.

WHET to the actor who played the friend that didn't end up an addict. He had a hairy chest in the cliff jumping scene?

Mark Wahlberg was great in this!

Leo was so sexy in this movie. He had a nice lean body, pretty eyes and lips, beautiful cheekbones and showed a lot of skin and showed his ass twice. So erotic. The last time he looked sexy and fuckable was in The Beach and that was over 20 years ago. He left his looks go fast. If he had laid off the booze, kept working out, wore some sunscreen and moisturizer, he could have still been sexy. I felt guilty about finding him visually attractive in Gilbert Grape despite his character being low-functioning autistic.

Leo was fine. As in just fine. His looks are overrated

Leo and Jim.

It's weird people still see Leo as this sex symbol despite his premature aging, fluctuating weight and bloated face. People act like the models he parades around with are into him for his looks and sex appeal. WTF? He looks awful now. Ryan Phillippe, Matt Damon, Ryan Reynolds and Will Smith are all in his age range and look much much better than him. Matt Dillon is 10 years older than Leo and looks younger than him.

Speaking of which young Matt Dillon would have been great for this role being actually New York-adjacent (born in New Rochelle) and he was typecasted into tough streetwise roles.

I'm not a fan of Leo as an actor, outside of this film, and "Gilbert Grape".

I particularly enjoy this film.

Leo is like Johnny Depp and turned into a walking parody of himself.

We all know who became one of the biggest box office draws from this cast, right?

If Mark Wahlberg wasn't in Boogie Nights, he would have ended up like the rest of NKOTB and other teen stars. He was a bit successful with Calvin Klein ads, was a rapper and did Fear and Basketball Diaries only because he was a hot thing then but nobody took him seriously as an actor until Boogie Nights which unfortunately made him a box office star.

Nobody took him seriously until FEAR r84. His performance in Fear is what helped land him the part in Boogie Nights.

He was good in Fear because he really is a thug from the streets of Boston. So it didn't take much imagination on his part to nail that role.

He was barely a thug in Fear. He was a psycho.

He was a racist drug addict violent thug in Basketball Diaries

Apparently the film took so many liberties from the source material that it could barely be called an adaptation more a film inspired by.

The official story about Don's Plum is that Leo and some of the other cast sued because it was never meant for a wide audience, was amateurish, and was trying to capitalize on the actors' (really Leo's) fame. The supposed truth is that it reveals too much about what those guys were really like, at least at that time. Leo was trying very hard to tamp down the "pussy posse" image. The difference between that film and Celebrity is the latter is a Woody Allen film made when Woody Allen films were still prestige projects.

Another of Leo's pre-Titanic roles where he's really excellent: Marvin's Room, which is a little on the schmaltzy side, but still good.

R89 Young Leo was such a beauty.

[quote]After Titanic, he never did a gay role again.

It's okay that you forgot about J. Edgar. Everyone else did.

R91 The movie did not explore his gayness and it was swept under the rug.

^ Not exactly. It's the portrait of a man who is deeply in the closet. Dustin Lance Black wrote it that way purposely. We can debate whether the film should have explored his gayness more, but it did not just sweep it under the rug.

His only performances I've liked in the last 2 decades were the Tarantino ones.

It's weird how Matt Damon looks like the lovechild of Leo and Marky Mark.

Young Matt Dillon could have played Jim Carroll if they adapted it in the early 80s. He would have done a better job since he's from NY and hanged out with that crowd.

Also Matt Dillon is Irish Catholic and would have understood that Catholic guilt.

Apparently the film was in development hell for a while. Matt Dillon was sought out to play Jim in an 80s adaptation with Anthony Michael Hall also being looked into but it got shelved. Then when the film got revived in the early 90s it was River Phoenix originally considered until his death. Then Ethan Hawke was considered but ultimately it went to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Leo was the right pick

Will Leonardo ever do a role again where his character kisses a guy (This Boy’s Life), fucks a guy (Total Eclipse), or gets blown buy a guy (Basketball Diaries)?

R100 Leo is older now and has all the fame and fortune he could dream of. I don't know why he is still in the closet (he is bisexual) and so protective of his identity as a "straight man"

I was wondering about the director of the film... And then I look him up on IMDB.....

Kalvert also directed Deuces Wild with Stephen Dorff, Fairuza Balk, Brad Renfro, James Franco and Norman Reedus.

Out of curiousity since the movie is supposedly autobiographical, are any of the people mentioned in the song "People Who Died" represented in the movie?

R101 And he got the Oscar he wanted for so long - he has received absolutely everything he could possibly want in regards to his career so why not start doing what you want at this point?

Stop calling him bi. You don’t know that. No one does. Just stop.

OK he's gay

Jim Carroll should get another biopic that is accurate to his life. He was an interesting man and part of pre-gentrification NYC arts culture.

Aka part of the pre transplant. He was actually a NYer.

R109 I wonder how controversial it is casting a native Californian like DiCaprio to play a native NYer like Carroll. Leo did a good job for what it's worth but he doesn't pass at all for an East Coaster. Just like nobody from Texas bought very NYC J Lo as Selena

Leo was really pretty during his twink days. How can people even compare ratface Chalamet playing druggy twinks to him? Young Leo earned his place with River Phoenix and James Dean in angsty complicated twink legends heaven.

I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the early 2000s could have pulled off Jim. I always liked him as an actor more than Leo.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fine but he isn’t that great an actor, despite the hardcore push Hollywood did for him a decade ago.

I can see why this has never gotten a faithful adaptation. Seeing a 12 to 16 year old boy engage in hard drug use, get into violent street fights, promiscuous sex, prostitution, getting molested and raped and freely use slurs like spic, queer, spade and faggot would have been disturbing. In the movie Jim was aged up to his late teens and a lot of the disturbing content was omitted.

I do admire Carroll for being so brutally honest. He exposed a lot of sexual predatory behavior that occurred back then but was swept under the rug. His hard drug use was obviously to self-medicate for his abusive background. Shitty and seemingly neglectful parents, being crept on and raped by older men and women and being bullied for being anti-war and having long hair and hanging out with black and Hispanics.

Good call, OP! I remember seeing this when it came out and loved it. I wonder if it will age well, but I completely forgot about this movie and will watch it sometime soon. I love the song by PJ Harvey during that scene with the blond (twins?) where has a 3-way. I forget the name of the song, but iir, this movie had an awesome soundtrack. There were some great lesbian grunge back in the 90s. I will watch for the music alone. What platform did you watch this on?

R116 why wouldn’t a movie set in the 80s age well? It’s set in a certain time period

He was cute when young. He has a rough life and lived through so much tragedy. Poetry was his way out. But you could tell he was depressed and traumatized.