I cannot count on my hand how many times I have watched a sports documentary since the age of nine. I would be watching the 30 for 30s on ESPN and I would come across the fantastic ones: I Hate Christian Laettner directed by Rory Karpf, Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies directed by James Podhoretz, or Believeland directed by Andrew Billman. A lot of times these documentaries have the same cinematography, a former professional athlete, coach, or media figure in their house or place of work followed by a photo or video of the action the speaker is discussing. When I heard of The Carter Effect directed by Sean Menard I expected to be just like any other documentary.
But I was wrong. I have never seen anything like it. Sean Menard zooms you into Toronto, Canada at the beginning of Toronto Basketball: 1995. The team is terrible in the first two years as a franchise but with its luck in the draft, snags the ninth overall pick in 1997 and the fifth pick in the 1998 draft. McGrady picked in '97 and Carter in '98. Spoiler alert: Carter is really freaking good. Menard exceptionally details the story of Carter with some of the best and most creative cinematography and the characters are built up better than anything I have ever seen. I have seen sports documentaries. But nothing can compare or is better than The Carter Effect directed by Sean Menard.
The story of The Carter Effect begins at the very beginning of the Toronto Raptors, conveniently named after the Jurassic Park release, as they are announced as the newest addition to the National Basketball Association (NBA). In their first two years the team ended up with a 21-61 record in their inaugural year. The next year, the produce a 30-52 record in the 1996-97 season landing them with the ninth pick with whom they select Tracy McGrady, a shooting guard from Mount Zion Christian Academy a private Christian day school in Durham, North Carolina. The following season, the Raptors tremendously struggle posting a measly sixteen win season earning them the fourth pick which they use to select Antawn Jamison later trading him for Vince Carter, a small forward from the University of Northern Carolina. The rest is history and this documentary perfectly portrays the story from start to finish.
The work of Tomasz Kurek, lead cinematographer, and Sean Menard, director, is dazzling. For instance, during the "Draft Night of 1998" scene, the scene is illustrated in a smaller television-like format. This effect portrays for the audience a real-life atmosphere as if they were watching on TV, live. However, this effect sometimes falls off as not every flashback scene is portrayed this way which would have been appreciated. For example, during Carter's high school highlights, we are shown this in the traditional blown out landscape format unlike some of the other shots in this film. The player interviews I spectacularly but surprisingly enjoyed. What I mean by this, is that Menard and Kurek don't use just a cookie-cutter format for the interviews. The cinematography is clear and head-on with the interviewee. The backgrounds are uniquely chosen by Kurek to not just simply give you the generic navy blue/black curtain behind a stool or chair the interviewee is sitting on. For example, Canadian rapper and influencer Drake is seen in front of skeletons of several dinosaurs for his interview presumably in his home. Businessman are seen presumably in their offices in front of glass window during the interview and the head-on effect makes the audience feel as if they are talking to this figure.
The building of characters and how certain people in this story is tremendously shown like any other documentary. Athletes, businessman, and other influential members of the Canadian culture and some of the American culture are shown of their real true selves. Whether it be, how Drake's personality was influenced by Carter on the court and somewhat off, or how Canadian basketball player Sam Dekker directly influenced some of his game by what he saw on TV of Vince Carter. Without these character build ups, this movie would seem sloppy and unorganized.
Besides the many goods in this movie, there are also some bad things that can be discovered in almost everything. For example, this movie somewhat deceives its viewer when the title is "The Carter Effect" while it should be instead called something along the lines of: "Toronto Basketball". While, Menard clearly shows the impact of Vince Carter on basketball, he also unclearly shows the story of the beginning of Toronto basketball and now with no clear reference to the difference Carter made. Yes, they won a lot more games but they have also won games with the likings of current big three Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, and Marc Gasol.
All in all, this is a very great movie by Menard. The cinematography and character building really helps shape the whole story together in a great way.
The Carter Effect is available on Netflix and was released at the Toronto International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and the RiverRun International Festival.
