DVD Review: Kobe Doin’ Work
Posted on Dec 01, 2009 @ 01:48PM - Add a comment
Excitement. Sweat. Strategy. And trash talk... in Spanish.
Welcome to a night in the life of Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, courtesy his Number One Fan, Spike Lee. The director’s new DVD documentary, Kobe Doin’ Work, is a little glimpse at the mind of Bryant in his own words. The film focuses on an April 2008 game in which the Lakers played against the San Antonio Spurs, and largely plays like a typical basketball game would on TV. The difference, though, is that Lee used 22 cameras to follow Kobe in action, and the game’s sportscaster is Bryant himself, watching almost a year later and reflecting on his playing, on the court and off.
Apart from the polished editing, Kobe features only a handful of artistic flourishes to remind us that we’re not watching Sports Center on ESPN (the network released the movie). A few plays are slowed down and replayed for effect, a few moments are frozen in black and white and now and then an upbeat piano motif trickles in to funk things up. Several of the DVD extras also support the creative effort: In one segment, Lee discusses how he made the film, while some of his production crew discuss why they made the film.
