The Basketball Diaries

Year:	1995
Genre:	Drama
Director:	Scott Kalvert
Cast:	Leonardo DiCaprio - Jim Carroll Lorraine Bracco - Jim's Mother Marilyn Sokol Chanting Woman James Madio - Pedro Patrick McGaw - Neutron

Drugs used: Heroin

Tagline: The true story of the death of innocence and the birth of an artist.

The Story: The Basketball Diaries is the true life story of a poet/musician named Jim Caroll played by Leonardo , and his time being a drug abuser/heroin addict as a teenager going to Catholic school. Jim is a promising basketball player. His school team is one of the best in the city. However, as Jim slides into the typical rebeliousness of teen adolescence, he and his chums start getting into the usual experimentation with drugs. But when one of Jim's buddies who has been suffering from lukemia dies, he can't handle it and slowly but surely, ends up spirialing out of control. Jim's life is filed with angst, a basketball coach who makes sexual advances towards him, and a cold institution that offers him no guidance.

The Basketball Diaries itself is a pretty interesting view into the world of drugs and their ultimate impact on a young person's life. The Basketball Diaries is a realistic representation of "street kids" and drug use