Scott Kalvert Movies
One of the 1990s' wave of neophyte movie directors schooled in the art of music videos, Scott Kalvert made the leap to features with violent stories about the seamier side of New York youth. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Kalvert was already experimenting with making movies in his teens. Cutting his professional teeth in music videos, Kalvert directed numerous clips in the late '80s and 1990s, including DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's MTV Award-winner "Parents Just Don't Understand" (1988). Anxious to make the transition to movies, but only for the right project, Kalvert turned down several music-related studio features and managed to become the director who finally adapted New York punk poet Jim Carroll's incendiary adolescent memoir The Basketball Diaries (1995) for the big screen. Critically damned for being detached from its original '60s context and devolving into a standard melodrama of drug addiction and recovery, The Basketball Diaries nonetheless garnered rave reviews for Leonardo Di Caprio's spirited, harrowing portrayal of the teenage Jim. The film also earned an unwelcome dose of notoriety amid the late-'90s wave of school shootings for Jim's vivid onscreen fantasy of opening fire in his Catholic high school. Despite making several high-profile deals after The Basketball Diaries, including a brief, aborted stint directing the remake of Gloria (1999) starring Sharon Stone, Kalvert didn't get a second feature to theaters until the shelved Deuces Wild was finally released in 2002. A violent, ill-scripted story of 1950s Brooklyn gang rivalry, Deuces Wild got overwhelmingly negative notices and disappeared quickly. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
This gang warfare drama is from director Scott Kalvert, whose previous film was the controversial and violent The Basketball Diaries (1995). In the sweltering summer of 1958, Leon (Stephen Dorff) and Bobby (Brad Renfro) are leaders of the Brooklyn street gang known as the Deuces. When their brother Alley Boy died from an overdose, the two toughs vowed to keep narcotics out of their turf, but now they're being muscled by a new and more powerful gang called the Vipers, fueled by drug money and led by mobster Fritzy Zennetti (Matt Dillon). As a vicious gang war heats up that will determine Brooklyn's future, a romance develops between Bobby and Annie (Fairuza Balk), the leader of a girl gang. Deuces Wild co-stars Frankie Muniz, Balthazar Getty, Max Perlich, Drea de Matteo, Deborah Harry, Vincent Pastore, Joshua Leonard, James Franco, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Brad Renfro, (more)
Very loosely based on the memoir of the same name, The Basketball Diaries transposes the late '60s adolescence of writer/artist Jim Carroll to some unspecified time period at least 15 years later, further confusing the timeframe with three decades of rock music, some by Carroll himself. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Catholic school chums are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but their friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) languishes in the hospital with leukemia. In-between typically boyish adventures, Jim scribbles in his notebook and experiments with sex and drugs. His group of friends begins to disintegrate after coach Swifty (Bruno Kirby) not only makes a pass at Jim, but also catches him and his pals using drugs on the court and kicks them off the team. Out of school and on the streets, Jim turns tricks, betrays friends, robs stores, and deals drugs to feed his heroin addiction. Not even the efforts of former addict Reggie (Ernie Hudson) can cure Jim. Mark Wahlberg appears as one of Jim's basketball and drug buddies, while Carroll himself makes a memorable cameo as an addict who describes the almost Catholic rituals of shooting heroin. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Papiris, Leonardo DiCaprio, (more)
