Basketball Movie Review
Shooting Stars
LeBron's high-school years get the scripted treatment, with the emphasis placed on the Akron friendship group that existed before the NBA future swallowed everything else.
A solid companion to More Than a Game: less immediate than the documentary footage, but useful when it keeps LeBron inside the team rather than above it.
Movie details
2023 · 1h 55m · Drama
Director Chris Robinson
- Mookie Cook — LeBron James
- Caleb McLaughlin — Dru Joyce III
- Wood Harris — Coach Dru Joyce II
- Scoot Henderson — Romeo Travis
- Shooting Stars is based on the 2009 book by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger about James's high-school basketball years in Akron, Ohio.
- Elite high-school prospect Mookie Cook plays LeBron James, while Scoot Henderson appears as Romeo Travis in the 2023 film.
01
The Take
The danger with any young-LeBron story is that the ending has been mythologised beyond repair. Shooting Stars is best when it fights that gravity and stays with the group: Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee, Sian Cotton and Romeo Travis navigating friendship, school and increasingly absurd attention alongside the future superstar.
02
Does the Basketball Hold Up?
The high-school setting gives the movie real basketball stakes because roles, chemistry and local rivalries existed before the national celebrity machine took over. It also makes a useful double feature with More Than a Game, where the actual players and footage can be compared with the dramatised version.
03
Best Basketball Moment
The team finding its collective rhythm after conflict, because the movie's most convincing idea is that the famous individual story started as a group basketball story.
04
Ball Cred
The film is based on LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger's book about James's high-school years, and casts real elite prospect Mookie Cook as the young LeBron.