Ever since he was a kid, lanky California redhead Kevin Laue loved basketball. The fact that he was born without a left arm below the elbow — and is left-handed, to boot — only made it extra satisfying when he turned out to be pretty darn good at it.
Regarded with skepticism by coaches, teammates, opponents and scouts alike, Laue rose through the high school ranks as a notorious shot-blocker, and also made one crowd-pleasing basket after another. The local media took notice, and eventually even then-President George W. Bush.
“Long Shot,” a no-frills documentary from director Franklin Martin (“Walking on Dead Fish”), follows Laue’s path to an East Coast military academy, where he hopes to attract a scholarship to be the first-ever one-armed NCAA Division I player.
The mellow Laue, clearly still mourning the death of his dad, makes a likable enough subject, if sometimes low-key to the point of dull. Watching other people watch him play, though, is definitely not.