Lenny Cooke

Name: Lenny Cooke
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport, Documentary
Released: December 6, 2013
Duration: 88 min
Rating: 71

2013

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Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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Lenny Cooke

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Movie Details & Credits

| Release Date: December 6, 2013 | Not Rated

Summary: In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. A decade later, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. In this quintessentially American documentary, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie track the unfulfilledIn 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. A decade later, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. In this quintessentially American documentary, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie track the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach.… Expand

Director: Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Sport, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 88 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Alan Scherstuhl

Dec 3, 2013

Ordinary life comes to look like a humiliation in the late reels of Lenny Cooke, yet another heartbreaker of a doc in which a compelling basketball story powers a discomfiting examination of a crisis facing young American men. Read full review

The Playlist Gabe Toro

Nov 19, 2013

Lenny Cooke isn't a documentary, it's an autopsy, detailing exactly why Cooke vanished off the map and why he struggled to get back into the game, a focus that goes micro where other sports docs go macro. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Nov 19, 2013

The Safdies have stood out over the last few years for continually challenging audience expectations even while seeming to adhere to conventional storytelling traditions, and that's certainly true here: You've never seen a sports movie like this before. Read full review

Jesse Cataldo

Nov 19, 2013

While it verges on exploitation of the gentle giant at its core, it's also an effective bit of human drama, competently, and sometimes movingly, telling a story that deserves to be told. Read full review

Sheri Linden

Dec 12, 2013

A compellingly unconventional, elliptical sports documentary that explores the mysterious realm of might-have-been. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Dec 3, 2013

While Lenny Cooke’s considerable social and emotional resonance still doesn’t measure up to Hoop Dreams’, the Safdies beautifully evoke the other side of the professional game, the many basketball casualties who don’t get movies made about them. Read full review

John DeFore

Nov 19, 2013

While a composited scene, in which has-been Lenny lectures his younger self about work ethic and wisdom, has an undeniable poignancy, actual tragedy remains far beyond the film's grasp -- as does any illumination beyond the unsurprising suggestion that Cooke just didn't want success as much as peers like LeBron James. Read full review

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