This might be the shortest time yet between the rise of a prominent public figure and a biographical documentary about them getting made. The makers of Linsanity lucked out, since they’d been filming basketball player Jeremy Lin since his days playing for Harvard. They followed him into the NBA and his tenure with the Knicks, and were witness to his sudden explosion in global popularity. Director Evan Leong and his crew suddenly had a very different kind of movie on their hands.
But this movie still feels like too little, too soon. It provides solid background info on Lin, both his life and his career, but it doesn’t feel much more substantial than an ESPN doc. And not an installment of the (increasingly inaccurately named) 30 for 30 series, but a regular news piece. We’re just at the start of Lin’s career. His story as a NBA player has a beginning, but no middle or end. Linsanity doesn’t try to craft a full narrative out of the material it has so much as it simply relates everything vaguely notable that’s happened to its subject up to the point at which it was finished. What, then, separates it from a well-written article about Lin, or even a Wikipedia page?
The biggest letdown is that there are aspects to Jeremy Lin’s story that could make for a legitimately interesting film. In an incredibly short period of time, he gained a fanbase of millions that stretches overseas. Sociologically speaking, just probing into the whys and hows of this “Linsanity” phenomenon could yield fascinating results. How have the varying factors of his abilities, his background, his race, and more performed the alchemy that’s turned him into such a popular human being? What does the way the media treats him say about cultural perceptions of Asian-American-ness? These are questions that Linsanity is interested in touching on briefly, but not exploring to any depth.
Annoyingly, the film is afflicted with Superfluous Voiceover Syndrome. Daniel Dae Kim narrates, but this shows up so sporadically that the information he has to impart easily could have been delivered via other means. Someday, they’ll hopefully find a cure for SVS. Until then, lazy documentaries will cut quickie paychecks for character actors.
The doc is still an enjoyable ride, due mainly to the strength of its main character. Lin seems a thoroughly decent person, and he’s able to be nice and likable without coming across as bland. He has an appreciably goofy sense of humor, gladly singing along to Disney songs while the camera is on him. He’s easy to root for. A good portion of the movie focuses on how his Christian faith factors into who he is, and its able to convey his conviction while keeping him relatable to anyone on the outside of faith who may be watching (it probably helps that the director is also Christian, and is able to treat it non-chalantly).
Linsanity is a nice movie. If you’re a fan of Jeremy Lin, it’s unlikely to tell you anything you don’t already know, though it may give you a few new moments over which you can coo, “Aw, look at him! Isn’t he just a great person?” If nothing else, it serves as a time capsule of what it was like to look at Lin and his career from a very specific moment.
