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Why Does the New Space Jam Movie Want Us To Think That LeBron James Isn’t a Great Dad?

In a surprisingly enjoyable film that makes some strange choices, its characterization of its main star stands out as its most bizarre.

Mickey Desruisseaux
8 min readJul 19, 2021
I strongly question the wisdom to start a player who’s smaller than the ball, but you do you, Bron. (Warner Brothers)

You know, I really hadn’t planned on Alternate Timeline Movie Reviews becoming a series, but welp, here we are.

I had originally titled this piece “A Hater’s Review of Space Jam: A New Legacy.” Like I said earlier this spring, I was dead-set on grumping my way through this movie, tongue rigidly planted in cheek as I hysterically nitpicked over every possible failing the new film had in comparison to the original — as though the first movie was Casablanca reborn. I had my Skip Bayless clips, I had my Harry Potter gifs; it was going to be a full-blown snarkathon before acknowledging at the end that these are children’s movies and that I’m getting worked up over nothing.

But then I actually saw it, and I had to scrap the concept entirely for two reasons.

The first reason is that despite some savagely negative reviews, I actually liked it! For all the grousing about Warner Brothers overstuffing this movie just to show off all of its properties (that you can now conveniently watch on HBOMax!), it manages to…

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Mickey Desruisseaux
Mickey Desruisseaux

Written by Mickey Desruisseaux

Scribbling at the nexus of race, law, politics, and pop culture. A monster of many words, a man of all of them. (Opinions my own, not those of my employers.)

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