It’s 1999, Alberta, Canada. Middleview high school is about to have a home basketball game. Things happen before the game. Things happen during the game. And then things happen after. What they are remain mostly innocuous as we meet a number of students who are living a day in their lives, some on the team, some not, each impacted by the times they live in.
Written and directed by Ted Stenson, Events Transpiring Before, During, and After a High School Basketball Game is a modest little film that hinges on nostalgia to work best, featuring older technology, films, and cultural beats of the time. You don’t necessarily have to remember the late 90s to be in the loop but I suppose it doesn’t hurt. Being Canadian might work, too.
Stenson casts young unknowns and we quickly realize that who they are isn’t important but rather what they are in this tiny corner of the world. There’s a few guys from the team, including one who is obsessed with the recently released film called The Matrix. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. He prattles on and on about it, trying to convince his less than believing teammates that it has existential significance.
There’s the team’s assistant coach, who is reading Phil Jackson‘s basketball book Sacred Hoops and now believes the Triangle Offense is the only thing that will work. The head coach isn’t so ready to believe his small team can handle it. Or he just doesn’t care. It’s more likely the latter. The two refs aren’t much help either.
Then there’s the four-member drama club who want to make a social statement with their Shakespeare play but are forced to give it up due to its controversial subject matter. Now what can they do? Pour blood on the basketball court in the middle of the game? But where do you get blood? And is their collective breaking down? These are trying questions.
Stenson takes a very low-key approach, avoiding most of the conventions of the comedy genre. None of the characters are broadly drawn, perhaps purposefully, the idea being that no matter your convictions in high school, you’re mostly invisible. The halls of a typical high school are but a haven to mediocrity and well, everyday human existence. It’s not meant to be meaningful. It’s meant to be funny, because, well, life often is.
This isn’t a fast-paced, high school romp with the jocks versus nerds, mean girls versus nice girls, sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Instead, it’s sort of like if Napoleon Dynamite got tossed in the wash with Gregory’s Girl and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Sort of. It’s got no big laughs, which seems its intent, but is still rather amusing in the same way watching a string of cat GIFs online are. At just over 70 minutes, it takes up about the same amount of time.
There’s a lot to like about this effort though, with a bunch of really good performances from the young cast, most of whom seem to understand they aren’t carving out anything more than stock characters. Honestly, you won’t remember anyone’s name, only what they do. But, the ensemble-esque approach and Stenson’s quirky direction, jumping from plot to plot erratically, works surprisingly well. It never really feels all that authentic but it does often feel relatable. High school is a confusing time. It’s really only the janitor who gets it.