Boogie (2021 | USA | 89 minutes | Eddie Huang)
This is how Eddie Huang’s Wikipedia page describes him:
Edwyn Charles Huang (born March 1, 1982)[1] is an American author, chef, restaurateur, food personality, producer, and attorney.[2][3] He co-owns BaoHaus, a gua bao restaurant in the East Village of Lower Manhattan.[4] Huang previously hosted Huang’s World for Viceland. His autobiography, Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, was adapted into the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, of which he narrated the first season…. Huang’s first job as an attorney was working in corporate law at the law firm Chadbourne & Parke in New York City. He worked as a summer associate in 2006 and 2007, then was hired as an associate in the firm’s corporate department in 2008. Within a year, due to the financial crisis of 2007–08, Huang was laid off, and began working as a stand-up comic and marijuana dealer.
With a resume with so many zigs and zags, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’d try his hand at filmmaking, too.
Huang wrote and directed a new film called Boogie that comes out this week in some theaters. It’s quite good!
Boogie is a coming-of-age story that revolves around Alfred Chin, an Asian, teenage basketball prodigy in New York who goes by “Boogie” (and who is not DeMarcus Cousins). Taylor Takahashi stars, and he’s very good at conveying Boogie’s torment. Boogie knows he can play, and thinks he’s got a good chance for a scholarship at a top university (Georgetown and St. John’s are options he has as a walk-on) but he can also be a bit hot headed. For his senior year, Boogie transfers to City Prep high school to increase his profile, but he has several altercations with his coach, including telling him that his teammates are “hot trash.”
Boogie faces an uncertain future with college, his Black girlfriend (who he loves but has a much different background), and his parents. His mom is a “tiger mom,” she pushes Boogie towards a scholarship, even if he’d rather walk-on to a top 10 school. She’s relentless and doesn’t bother to ask what Boogie wants. When a scholarship appears unlikely, she brings in an agent, Melvin (Mike Moh, who played Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), to explore options for Boogie that he clearly doesn’t want. When Melvin works out a deal for Boogie to play Chinese basketball, he blackmails him into taking it by one of the most chickenshit ways possible.
And then there’s Monk, considered to be the best basketball player in New York City. Boogie thinks that by beating Monk in a game, he can prove his skills to skeptical scouts and recruiters. The late rapper Pop Smoke plays Monk and he’s outstanding; easily my favorite performance in the movie. He shows a menacing swagger but also undeniable charisma. It’s exactly what you would want from the anointed king of playground basketball.
I suspect Eddie Huang sees a lot of himself in Boogie (unlike the young Eddie Huang in “Fresh Off the Boat” that he often spoke out against.
Boogie is a confident, moving, and absorbing movie. It shows Eddie Huang’s ability to capture the angst and anxiety of a young, Asian man. It’s a worthwhile film to watch, and I can’t wait to see what Eddie Huang does next, whatever path he chooses.
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Boogie begins playing in theaters on March 5.
(Photo from Focus Features.)