Above the Rim poster
Above the Rim

What’s Aged the Best?

Tupac; Wood Harris; Eric Nies; Shep’s game; marketing; villains; streetball; Tonya Pinkins

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:28Read transcript
  • Tupac at his peak and Harris’s later Wire connection have aged well.
  • Eric Nies’s Real World and The Grind fame makes Montrose an especially 1990s casting choice; his basketball bearing and passing look convincing.
  • Shep’s twenty-six points in one half in corduroys deserve comparison with famous real basketball performances.
  • Kyle’s Michael Jordan Aerial Assault poster is exciting nostalgic decoration despite being judged a bad poster.
  • Shep’s fourteen-year grief is both best and worst: it drives the plot but leaves him implausibly unable to function or accept companionship.
  • The Holler If Ya Hear Me trailer is credited with attracting audiences and anticipating later song-driven marketing.
  • The entertaining villains make it possible to root for both tournament teams.
  • The film’s promotional poster is praised.
  • The white big man on Kyle’s team is an enjoyable 1990s type; the idea he is the coach’s son is speculative and challenged by his absence from the school team.
  • Yellow tape and crowds pressing onto the court convincingly capture New York streetball culture.
  • Tonya Pinkins’s mother character is praised for fierce vulnerability, firm parenting and a steadying perspective on college ambitions.