Themes: Teachers and Students, Basketball Players, Kids in Trouble
Main Cast: Rhea Perlman, Fredro Starr, Carol Kane, Terrence Howard, Camille Saviola
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A Jewish high school teacher, Phyllis Saroka (Rhea Perlman), steps in to take on the thankless job of coaching the school's inept basketball team, which is filled with ne'er-do-wells from the slums. She takes the job to get extra money to fulfill her dream of opening a restaurant on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Phyllis has had bad luck with men, is dissatisfied with her teaching job, and is desperate to do something meaningful as she approaches middle age. Meanwhile, the players on the team are ambitious only about scoring drugs and girls and inventing their own rap songs. Butter (James Harris) is the team's only really talented player, but he wastes most of his energy chasing skirts. Busy-Bee (De'Aundre Bonds) is a small but highly energetic goofball. The mind of Spaceman (Terrence Dashon Howard) has been diminished by learning disabilities and drugs. Phyllis's greatest challenge is the brilliant, moody Shorty (Fredro Starr). Shorty teaches Phyllis the game, but he feels betrayed when he learns that she is planning to leave after one season. Perlman's husband, Danny DeVito, served as the film's producer. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Review
The point of these "rookie coach saves fledgling team" movies is that this particular coach is an odd match with these particular players. That's the primary (only?) hook that makes a story like Sunset Park worth re-telling, yet again. But Rhea Perlman? It takes a little getting used to. Still, it makes more sense that the former Carla Tortelli would be matching attitude with inner-city basketball players than the other endeavor her character envisions: opening a restaurant in St. Croix. It's even less likely that her coaching money would supply just enough of a financial boost to enable this dream, or that she'd even be hired in the first place, without a clue how to coach basketball. Starting off on such a wrong foot, Sunset Park takes awhile to get going. But it does eventually round itself into a perfectly competent inspirational sports movie. The problem is, the cinematic landscape is littered with perfectly competent inspirational sports movies, and a movie can't be called good simply for adhering to a reliable formula and avoiding any serious gaffes. Perlman falls into this same "perfectly competent" category, and at this stage of her career, owes her involvement to her husband, Danny DeVito, who serves as a producer on the movie. Better than Perlman are a couple of her players, particularly Fredro Starr as Shorty, a pint-sized talker who's trying to get a girlfriend. One senses a couple others actors might have stood out, such as a young Terrence Howard, if the script considered their stories worth telling. As for the basketball itself, the choreography is pretty lazy, as 95% of the points seem to be scored on easy layups. Just one of the many reasons Sunset Park disappears into total sports cliché anonymity. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
De'Aundre Bonds - Busy-Bee; Anthony C. Hall - Andre; Talent Harris; Shawn Michael Howard - Kurt
Credit
Lee Mayman - Art Director, Robi Reed-Humes - Casting, Andrea Reed - Casting, Tony Lee - Casting, David Ian Benezra - Consultant/advisor, Mary Kane - Co-producer, Cara Buonincontri - Co-producer, Carol Ramsey - Costume Designer, Gary Marcus - First Assistant Director, Steve Gomer - Director, Arthur Coburn - Editor, Elizabeth Cantillon - Executive Producer, Miles Goodman - Composer (Music Score), Miles Goodman - Songwriter, Kay Gee - Songwriter, Victoria Paul - Production Designer, Robbie Greenberg - Cinematographer, Danny DeVito - Producer, Michael Shamberg - Producer, Dan Paulson - Producer, Felipe Borrero - Sound/Sound Designer, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson - Screenwriter, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld - Screenwriter
