Events Transpiring Before, During, and After a High School Basketball Game (2020) Review

Title: Events Transpiring Before, During, and After a HIgh School basketball Game
Year: 2020

Director: Ted Stenson 
Country: Canada
Language: English

This feature, which has an incredibly long name that I'll just abbreviate as ETBDAHSBG, was a very last minute addition to my Calgary Film Festival viewing list. I am not a huge fan of basketball or documentaries about basketball, (sorry Hoop Dreams) but I found myself intrigued by the fact that the director was local to Calgary. I was surprised to find out this was not a documentary. It is a comedy, and a damn good one at that.

As Middleview High School's woeful boys basketball team prepares for another certain loss, several unusual dramas take shape around its periphery. A referee finds himself taking care of a pomeranian, the assistant coach is adamant they try a new strategy, a player tries to explain existentialism, and a drama class plan a confrontational protest after their play is banned.

"Have you guys seen The Matrix?" ETBDAHSBG is a weird picture which tells many different odd stories from an eclectic group of characters that is equal parts mundane and absurd. It has the awkwardness & amateur style acting of Napoleon Dynamite, mixed with the social nuances of The Breakfast Club. It's a modest little film that takes a low key approach to the genre. None of the characters are chewing the scenery, rather the ensemble and their stories intertwining are at the core of this picture.

You might not remember any of the characters in ETBDAHSBG, though that might be purposeful as most students feel invisible in high school. You might not enjoy every joke either; one scene involves a moment where a kid claims Jack to be his favourite Coppola flick. The joke is akward and doesn't make any sense, as do many other "jokes" in the film. 

I feel the director captures the spirit of high school adolescence and the uncomfortable times that it produced.ETBDAHSBG is a fairly short feature film (70-ish minutes) that impressed me with how it could tell so many stories in such a compact and satisfied way. The many great performances, combined with quirky direction left me amused by this very relatable, very nostalgic film.