
Director-writer Thomas Tosi’s Dribbles is a coming-of-age tale. It follows the journey of David McNeil (Jody Orrigo), a keen high school artist who longs to fill the shoes of his delinquent father by playing basketball, which he loved. David has gifts, but yearns for the trophies and the trappings that come with being the hero jock, captain of the winning team, and a commemorative jacket which only those who brave the arena are awarded.
To this end he abandons the talents which mark him as unique and undertakes a quest to gain acceptance in the world of organised sport. Quickly, however, he realizes that the journey is not going to be easy, nor is being part of a team all he hoped it would be. Luckily for David, there is a connection made with the emotional heart of this movie, Robert Shea’s titular character, a mentally challenged janitor, and the basketball team’s unofficial mascot.

“…high school artist who longs to play the sport his father loved…”
Dribbles is an underdog story that plays out like a spiritual sibling to David Anspaugh’s Hoosiers. Indeed, it feels like the kind of movie John G. Avildsen would have made. It is a story of tenderness on the road to triumph mixed in with tragedy. Tosi admirably recreates such an atmosphere as we learn about David’s life and the world he inhabits.
Each of us once longed to be someone we were not. We wanted to be the hero, get the girl, stand at the top of the mountain, and cry victory. Yet, as this drama eloquently illustrates, there lies a vast ocean between what we ‘want’ and what we ‘need.’ David wants acceptance, not merely from the people in his life, but from the ghost of a man who was barely a part of it. It’s as though Dennis Hopper’s Shooter Flatch had passed through this story, and rather than shrink into alcoholism, he was never seen again. The result is a messed-up teenager who is looking to earn something he doesn’t need whilst trying to win friends who aren’t really the best people, all the while ignoring emotional support from his wise-beyond-her-years girlfriend, Mary (Eliza Rose), in order to validate his choices.
Finally, it is Dribbles himself who teaches David, through humiliation and self-sacrifice, that the riches and glories most valuable are the people with whom we share our paths. Trophies fade, fall, and break, as David comes to understand by the end of Dribbles, but the priceless quality of human bonds and memories, rather than a team jacket, are longer lasting in the heart than any medal placed on his chest.

"…tenderness on the road to triumph..."