Skateland

I couldn't sleep tonight, I woke up at 1:30am and decided to watch a movie. I like coming age dramas and indie flicks, so I thought I'd give this a go. I was captivated from beginning to end, loved the characters and was especially impressed with Shiloh Fernandez. I've never seen him before and was pleasantly surprised how natural he was, I will be keeping an eye out for him in future movies.

All the characters were well developed and fair enough it's not particularly anything new, but still a great story from a different town.

Uplifting, sad, funny and real. This film is for people who 'appreciate' film. 9/10

I sat in the packed theater house. Eagerly awaiting this film. Why? Well, I remember 1983 and how it felt. The sights, the sounds, the emotions. It was my age of innocence. And a decadent time for many. And now I was going to visit that time for 90 minutes.

The film takes place in North Eastern Texas town. The year is 1983. Ritchie (Shiloh Fernandez) is a 19 year kid. Not sure where his life is going to go. And quite content working at Skateland for his life. Ritchie's choices. Only include. Not making a choice. With the closure of Skateland and his parents looming divorce. Ritchie is confronted with the question all 19 year olds hear. "What you going to do with yourself".

For a directorial debut. Anthony Burns held his own. However, we have all seen this film before. Nothing new here. A John Hughes throwback. Great music with very few great scenes. Ashley Greene of "Twilight" fame also stars in "Skateland". So, now I have watched 3 films with her that were "Ehhh" Wait for DVD. Or rent "Dazed & Confused".

The eighties music was wonderful in addition to a solid production design team and a good cast.

The film had some very charming and humorous moments. I believe the film would have benefited by sticking to its comic explorations of the era and interpersonal dynamics of its main characters and sub characters.

The dramatic essence of the film did not work for me. I did not feel vested in the characters enough to care about several of the "tragic" circumstances explored by the filmmakers. At one point the soundtrack explodes before and during a chase sequence that I found out of sorts.

I feel with some additional sound and visual editing this charming film can be made ready for a larger distribution.

Anthony Burns along with Brandon and Heath Freeman wanted to write and make their first movie about East Texas in the early 1980s where they grew up. The tag line of the movie expresses what they were trying to capture, " It was a time when life was easy ...in a place they though would never change." Skateland was the town roller rink where the young people gathered and some hung around or returned there even after graduating High School. The film focuses on a crowd where everyone smoked, drank beer and jockeyed for their boy girl relationships. The two main characters are Brent Burkam (Health Freeman) slightly older than the rest who unsuccessfully raced motorcycles for a few years and comes back to town to hang around with buddies such as Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez) who is about to graduate high school. He is the assistant manager of the roller rink and can't decide what to do with his life. There are shades of young Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfus, playing characters trying to figure out their lives in American Graffiti with the 1970s take on that decade. Jump forward ten years and we have the constant music beat of the 80s setting the background for the young peoples angst, mixed with drinking, parties, cars and some violence. While the story is about the guys, there is an interesting influence of the women. Ritchie's younger sister Mary(Haley Romm) and his girl friend Michelle(Ashley Greene) are the strong characters of the movie perhaps reflecting the women's movement as did the actions of Richies Mom (Melinda McGraw). While the setting and life style may not quite be the early 80s of the northeast where our kids grew up, this young movie team has created an enduring period piece. The photography, setting and the direction is definitely first rate . We may look back on this film and realize that it was a breakout for several of the actors who were excellent. The movie earned a slot at the Sundance Film Festival which is not an easy accomplishment for an Indie low budget film which was a first time effort for the Director and writers. It will have distribution and will open in late March- early April in NY and LA. (2011)

At the end my son turned to me and said, "That's it?" I graduated hs in 1983 and my 13yo son loves rollerskating so we thought this would be a great movie to watch together. I've never seen Adventureland (mentioned by some other reviewers) but I'll admit to hoping this might have some similarity to Saturday Night Fever (disco vs skating) but don't get your hopes up. Some good: the acting and the music. Some Annoying and Bad; the oh so slow, wandering plot (what plot?), the lack of actual skating scenes and the unrealistic portrayal of 'small town' Texas (not everyone dressed with the best style all the time, not all girls were hot and brainless and not all boys had perfect hair and muscles - the young men in this movie look to be in their mid to late twenties and since when did small towns have a mall?). All in all, it was a pretty boring movie and we really wish there would have at least been some crazy fun skating scenes to make the movie more exciting.