Scott Kalvert
Ritorno dal nulla

Based on an autobiographical book by Jim Carroll, writer and musician, this film by then-new director Scott Kalvert tells the story of a group of friends from late '60s New York, (simple kids, students, basketball players on the school team) and the relentless turn that sometimes a succession of negative events can bring to life.

First comes the fun, the games, the laughter; then the degradation, the slums, the heroin.

 There is no escape for this youth on the margins who knows far too soon severe dramas such as the loss of a friend due to illness, prostitution, drugs. The rot of society is heaped upon the still weak shoulders of little men to whom the situation and, in general, life slip out of their hands.

The gradual and incontrovertible capitulation of each character, and of the protagonist first and foremost, is described as only someone who has truly experienced these events themselves can do, as well as the squalor evident in places and actions rendered perfectly by the actors' performances (among which we remember a very young Leonardo DiCaprio splendidly playing Jim).

The self-destruction caused by that escape route initially so paradisiacal and subsequently hellish in its repercussions, is treated step by step, allowing glimpses despite the film's full and frantic pace, of declining personalities erasing themselves and hitting rock bottom. Some scenes are suggestive, especially those where the story is told in all its crudeness, and another particular one I mention, which features a slow-motion basketball game under a pouring rain, crowned by the musical backdrop of "Riders on the Storm" by the Doors, which in my opinion is touching.

The original title of the 1995 film is "The Basketball Diaries", and it’s no accident that it sparks reflection on what should have happened to young promises of this sport and how shooting hoops could have proven to be a better therapy than any artificial trip, to escape an adverse fate, the not-good, and even themselves.

For once, the choice of the title in Italian deserves a positive note: "Ritorno dal nulla" is at least fitting as a name, and I will add nothing more.

Lastly, I will explain the four stars which could very well have been five, but having read the book, they lose one not out of fault but because the story captured in those pages by Jim Carroll is certainly and more deservedly worthy of the highest marks.