The Basketball Diaries (1995)
The true story of the death of innocence and the birth of an artist.
Keywords
The Basketball Diaries rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic
IMDb7.3/10· 131K votes
Rotten Tomatoes46%
Metacritic46%
TMDb7.4/10· 2K votesWith 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.3/10 on IMDb and 46/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been modest.
About The Basketball Diaries
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Cast of The Basketball Diaries
Leonardo DiCaprio
as Jim Carroll
Bruno Kirby
as Swifty
Lorraine Bracco
as Jim's Mother
Ernie Hudson
as Reggie
Patrick McGaw
as Neutron
James Madio
as Pedro
Mark Wahlberg
as Mickey
Barton Heyman
as Confessional Priest
Roy Cooper
as Father McNulty
Michael Imperioli
as Bobby
Juliette Lewis
as Diane Moody
Manny Alfaro
as Manny
The Basketball Diaries facts
- Budget
- $2M
- Box office
- $2.4M
Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources
Audience opinions
What the audience liked
- •Raw portrayal of addiction captures deterioration with unflinching honesty
- •Strong performances elevate familiar coming-of-age tragedy beats
- •Basketball framework grounds abstract themes in relatable reality
What the audience disliked
- •Critics underrated film relative to its brutal emotional impact
- •Pacing drags during extended scenes of moral decay
Trailer
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