Sunset Park

Sunset Park is a 1996 drama about Phyllis Saroka, a white high school teacher who takes on the job of coaching a mostly Black basketball team. She needs the extra money to fund her plan of opening a restaurant after retirement. The players are talented but undisciplined and unmotivated, and Phyllis knows little about the sport, so the arrangement starts badly. She gradually earns the players' respect as she learns the game and stands up for one of them who has run into trouble, and the team begins to come together with a shot at reaching the championship game.

Steve Gomer directed the film, which was written by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld and Kathleen McGhee-Anderson and produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Dan Paulson. Rhea Perlman plays Phyllis, with Fredro Starr, Carol Kane, Terrence Howard, Camille Saviola and De'Aundre Bonds among the credited cast of 35. It was Gomer's first feature as director, followed much later by All Saints.

Released in April 1996, Sunset Park took in about 10 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from roughly 2,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 6.5 out of 10 from 23 votes. A critics' rating of 4.6 out of 10 from eight reviews is noticeably lower than the audience scores, suggesting reviewers were less receptive than general viewers.