MOVIE REVIEW: AMATEUR (2018)

Amateur is a Netflix movie. It is about a high school basketball phenom and covers his journey up the ranks (so to speak) of the amateur basketball leagues, and some of the problems that entails.

Amateur follows the story of Terron (I think his name was). He is really good at basketball and dominates the local basketball school competition. His father is an ex-football player (who has too many concussions to function well in life anymore) who is pushing him. He then gets drafted to a college team.

This movie follows a normal sports hero story in some spots. The kid wants to take care of his family, he has some teething issues with the team, people are trying to manipulate him, he doesn't know the whole story, etc. However, instead of taking the time to develop these issues, it keeps glossing over the bad.

However, it is slightly forgiveable as it is presented mainly from his point of view, so it could be seen as a representation and author-bias. When things are good, you tend to gloss over the bad and look the other way on the warning signs that things aren't quite right.

This doesn't quite work, however. The character is too generic and the lack of empathy I felt with his struggles didn't make me want to see things succeed. And the ending works into every feel-good cliche around instead of the more sombering tone it sets up. 

If you feel like watching a better version of the sports underdog story, there are plenty around. The classic is of-course Rocky. This movie needed more time to breathe and a much more restrained ending to truly hit. Instead, it rushes through the hard stuff that needed more set-up and ends feeling pretty flat.

1.5 out of 5 handicapped waffles.