This film is adapted from the book of the same name and is based on the true story of a renegade catholic school student/basketball star named Jim Caroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Carroll's three,...

This film is adapted from the book of the same name and is based on the true story of a renegade catholic school student/basketball star named Jim Caroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Carroll's three, equally self-destructive, friends who were on the basketball team together. Jim begins his free-fall from potential basketball stardom when he begins using heroin at the urging of his friends. However, Jim's situation takes a turn for the worse when his mother (Lorraine Branco) kicks him out of the house for his drug habits and to make ends meet, Jim robs, steals and prostitutes himself so as to feed his growing heroin habit. Before Jim falls to the point of no return, an old childhood friend named Reggie (Ernie Hudson) helps Jim put the pieces of his life back together as he turns to poetry to express his feelings.