A Kid from Coney Island

2019 Directed by Coodie Simmons, Chike Ozah

Feature documentary about the rise and fall, and rebirth of ex-NBA star, Stephon Marbury.

Stephon Marbury Ronald Stewart

89 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Rattlebones

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This is an odd one.
The movie starts off strong, detailing Marbury's rise in 1990s New York. Bringing in New York street ball legends, his family, and Cam and Fat Joe, it's exciting and the style suits his meteoric rise.
From there it goes into his time in the NBA, but unfortunately provides very little information about what happened behind the scenes. Marbury's problems are vague - he was on bad teams, he was homesick, he didn't know how to handle the media. Obviously, his father's death had a profound effect on him. But even his breakdown afterwards is not described as such.
Moreover, they gloss over the incredibly insensitive climate of sport's media at the time. The way they…
Review by Seesty ★★

Those who (wrongly) thought The Last Dance was a toothless hagiography should set their sights on this.
Review by Scott Tobias ★★

How do you make such a perfunctory doc about Starbury? And in his last year as a Chinese Basketball Association legend?! What a waste.
Review by AGPerson ★★★½

Stephon Marbury is definitely an overlooked legend, and A Kid From Coney Island highlights all the reasons why
I loved seeing the highlights of him playing with Kevin Garnett, as he’s one of my favorites
This documentary is also very informative and taught me a lot I didn’t know
I also greatly appreciated its honesty as it doesn’t only follow Marbury’s peak, but his fall from grace at a low point
I truly admire Starbury sneakers and his plan for them, and it’s time they come back!
I was at the world premiere with Marbury in attendance, so it made the documentary all the more emotional!
Review by Carman Olson ★★★★

The movie gets 4 stars but Stephon Marbury gets one. He had a great friend and teammate in Minnesota with Kevin Garnett But decided to leave then he was average with the nets and suns and quit on the Knicks then makes a big deal about winning in a much smaller league.
Review by MilesofSmiles 🐺 ★★★

Film 85
Such a strangely formatted and oddly sourced doc. Steph shows up in the last act to reflect and it really takes off. The redemption arc is incredible. Before that, it was a tough hang.
Steph and KG🐺🥺🥺
Review by jordanisjoso ★★★★★

A narrative arc that'll make you cry.
Review by Max ★★★★

So much goodness and positivity throughout, with a star-studded list of guests.
A great look at a misunderstood marvel.
Review by n0t_a_critic ★★★

Now I just wanna watch a full doc where Steph talks to Xavier Bell during haircuts. Like Mulaney playing Tyler in chess in <a href="http://John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch on Letterboxd boxd.it/o9Fu">John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch.
Review by Scomanella ★★½ 1

Growing up in New York seems tough.
Review by JaysonGaston ★★★★ 1

You know it’s gonna be a good sports doc when it starts in a barbershop
Review by travis ★½

loved the claymation, but honestly idk if marbury rly deserves this doc? he definitely has a lived a full life and came a long way, but it sounds like he was totally insufferable as a teammate. i mean he’s all nice and stuff now after spending a decade in china where he was seemingly revered as a god with none of the tabloid/press criticism. i’m not saying winning the cba championship isn’t a big deal, but like there are countless nba players who beijing would have taken over marbury and would have performed better, but those guys don’t wanna play for cba lmfao. marbury was grasping at straws and got really lucky tbh. dude had nowhere else to go. it…

Recent reviews

Review by Neil Sedgewick ★★★½

Stephon Marbury never reached the heights of many from that epic draft class of '96. This was not his doing though.
Labelled 'difficult' by a league that wanted players in suits rather than be themselves problems occurred at most points on his journey. His only crime honesty and being 'too New York' even for New York apparently.
The question is asked at one point to name one of the other starting 5 of that Knicks team he led. I couldn't do it myself and consider myself a Knicks fan!
To hear from family and friends about his time in the league was insightful but I really wanted to hear from him.
I'm glad he found his peace though, even if in the most unlikely of leagues.
Review by KyleNeubeck ★★

Could have been much better if they had made an effort to include people outside of Marbury’s circle to examine his flaws and his downfall as an NBA player. Could have been much better if Marbury himself was involved in the documentary before the final half hour or so, when he adds some real perspective and emotion as you see the final days of his stint in China play out.
As is, it’s just kind of toothless. Maybe Marbury was let down by shoddy rosters and overzealous expectations and micromanaging coaches, but nobody making the documentary thought it was worth the trouble to find out. The death of his father seems to have had a profound impact not just on Marbury…
Review by Maddie Barnes ★★★★

Another doc about basketball.
Review by Aaron Mitchell ★★★

A really great first half that is sadly washed away by a jaw droppingly forced second half.
Review by colg8 ★★★½

a coney is a hotdog but the island is cool too lotsa russians
Review by Prones ★★★½

The strong third act warrants an extra half a star.
Review by naoki ★★★½

2020/12/6
Review by Sam Shannon ★★

When I was first getting acquainted with the NBA, Stephon Marbury was a major gateway. Epitomised cool to a 12 year old me and his redemption story is one for the ages. However, the technique chosen by the directors to not feature Starbury in his own documentary until past the hour mark just didn’t work. A forced but touching final scene doesn’t make up for what we could have gained from hearing from the man himself.
Review by Scomanella ★★½ 1

Growing up in New York seems tough.
Review by Gareth Bailey ★★★

The documentary definitely improves towards the China years - not just in terms of Starbury's own happiness but feels like more of an interesting insight into his motivation behind moving their and how he became a legend in China.
Review by KJ Carter ★★★★

This was fucking awesome. Starbury a legend man. As soon as the credits rolled, I was on ebay tryna buy some signed merch lmao. Fat Joe might’ve been the MVP here, dude was hilarious.
Review by Walter Sobchak ★★★

The last 20 minutes should be the whole film.