Skate Kitchen

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. It is somewhere between documentary and drama, all the 'actors' are girls who are members of the real Skate Kitchen group of skateboarders in New York City. It fairly accurately represents their real lives but the story itself is fictional.

The female filmmaker encountered two of them, with their skateboards, on the G train. Interested, she introduced herself and asked "are there more of you?" And that was the genesis of this movie. It takes place during one summer.

It is really a slice of life focusing more on one character living on Long Island, Camille, who just turned 18 and had some freedom to break away from her single mom's restrictions. She looks up a skate meeting event in Lower Manhattan, goes over to see what was happening, and gradually became friends with the others. There are the usual difficulties, including ridicule from the boys, but the girls bond.

I realize the movie contains exactly what the filmmaker intended, but I found myself wanting more. What kind of future do these young girls, and their young boy counterparts , have after high school? Will they be content with working at low-paying jobs to barely make ends meet while they spend most of their spare time skateboarding and watching their videos? What prospects do they have to climb a bit and pursue a more meaningful vocation? Or is skateboarding meaningful enough for them?

I can identify with all this because my own son was one of these skateboarding teens. Then he went on to a job as a bicycle messenger. By the time he got to be 25 he realized he didn't want to do that all his adult life so went to college and converted that into a good career. I will continue to wonder what the girls of Skate Kitchen will go on to.

I have not been able to find an explanation of their name, Skate Kitchen, perhaps it was inspired by the Manhattan area known as Hell's Kitchen.

'Skate Kitchen (2018)' can be slow and it tends to meander but there's almost constantly a palpable sense of chemistry between its core players, the eponymous 'Skate Kitchen' (who each essentially play fictionalised versions of themselves). There's also a tangible, quite inviting atmosphere that perforates pretty much every scene, from the subtle and harmonious moments to the brash and loud ones. The flick falls into the category of film where the plot essentially comes second to the characters, as we're pretty much just put in the same space as them and allowed to experience what they do and how they feel when they're at they're most vulnerable. This works wonders purely because it all feels markedly 'real', not to mention suitably inclusive. This is helped by the fact that everyone except Jaden Smith does their own skating and that it's all suitably impressive, to boot. Everything just feels somewhat relaxed and it's easy to get drawn into the world. However, the narrative does wrap itself up pretty quickly and conventionally in a way that doesn't feel all that natural to what was previously established. There is also some unfortunate glamorisation of drug use. The experience isn't exactly riveting, either, even if it's usually engaging and generally entertaining. 7/10

Skate Kitchen is a decent coming-of-age film for young women in their late teens/early 20s. It doesn't have much of a plot or a story, but that won't bother the target audience. While it wasn't for me, it will suit some just fine.

Successfully using non-professional actors at the time (with the exceptions of Elizabeth Rodriguez and Jaden Smith) this quasi-documentary centers on the NYC female skateboarding collective known as Skate Kitchen. It falls short at times, but overall I found it another fascinating film from director Crystal Moselle (The Wolfpack).

Although I'm way out of the intended demographic of the movie, I still was quite engaged and interested in the characters of the Skate Kitchen. With the exception of the lead here Camille (Rachelle Vinberg), we really don't find out a lot about the backgrounds or history of these teens. Thus, the movie is more about the portrayal of female friendship and bonding at this age, with the, at times, inevitable crossing paths with some male skateboarders.

Not a film that I would expect to like, yet I was taken in by the intimate portrayal of these teens, while trying not to judge their futures.

2018 is turning out to be a great year for skateboarding films. Bing Liu's "Minding the Gap" was an unrelentingly honest take on the violent family situations that often surround young skateboarders (everyone should see it!), Jonah Hill's directorial debut "Mid90's" looks like it'll be kickass, and now we have Crystal Moselle's "Skate Kitchen", which is an energetic and funny story about a group of real-life skateboarding crew of girls in NYC. This film felt like a semi-documentary, as all of the girls in the film appear to be playing themselves, recreating moments that have been posted on their active social media accounts. Living in NYC myself, it was refreshing to see a film that didn't use the typical aerial establishing shot of the city every time the scene changed. Everything related to the setting felt grounded rather than self-indulgent, as if the director was set on creating a mood that felt like a valid New York experience. Riding the subway, dealing with random catcallers, and dodging the incessant traffic of the streets, it all feels authentic. However, while the mood and visuals of the film remain consistently great, the story beats are unfortunately not as strong. The two big emotional conflicts in the film are essentially solved off-screen, and it feels like a missed opportunity to flesh out the awesome theme of positive relationships between women. It could be said that the director was making a point about how the struggles of our youth are often blown out of proportion and easily solved, but in practice it sometimes messed with the flow of the movie, at least for me. Basically, it was somewhat distracting to have the emotional plotline simmering in the background of a movie that was otherwise wildly fun, only for it to be solved with minimal effort. However, where the drama aspect of the movie falls short, that actual friendship and chemistry between the girls of the movie is so on point, it's basically worth the price of admission. The skate crew jokes around about things that are exclusive to women, has fun messing around in skate parks, and overall are just entertaining to be around. "Skate Kitchen" was a fun ride that felt progressive as a non-exploitative celebration of female friendships, and I wish there were more films like it.

Also Jaden Smith is in this movie and acts exactly how you'd expect him to act. I can't stress how fun/funny this movie is. If you can deal with a lack of dramatic payoff and you like to have fun, go see this movie.