Skateland

Greetings again from the darkness. I am a sucker for coming-of-age stories based in the 60's, 70's or 80's. So all it was took was seeing the trailer once for me to catch up with first time director Anthony Burns' film set in 1983 in a small east Texas town. No matter that I spent almost no time in a skating rink growing up. The basic time and place was enough to lure me in.

Pet Peeve Alert: I have stated this many times, but I can never understand why directors feel the need to cast twenty-somethings as high schoolers. Immediately I am on the defensive. That's not to say that Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Greene and Haley Ramm aren't fine actors, because they certainly are. They just aren't believable as 17 or 18 year olds. Same with Heath Freeman (the film's co-writer). As Brent, he is cast as the older guy who still parties with the high schoolers when on break from his time as a dirt bike racer. Mr. Freeman is talented, but looks to be pushing 40 years old! Remember Matthew McConaughey in Richard Linklater's excellent Dazed and Confused? At least he didn't look 15 years older than the other kids. There are elements of that film, as well as Almost Famous and American Graffiti, present here. Unfortunately, Skateland never comes close to the detail or emotional strength of any of those three films.

For the first hour, I kept holding out hope that the film would find itself and really present something new and special. It has the look of important commentary. It just leaves us holding an empty bag.

Certainly all the pieces are here ... wannabe writer, inspirational sister, broken family, rich and poor friends, cool and uncool students, hangers-on, local thugs, etc. Even Skateland itself has a real look and feel. For whatever reason, these pieces never jell ... they just lay there expecting us to assemble a meaningful, completed puzzle.

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 saw this film today at Sundance and really enjoyed it. I don't know why the other two reviewers here suggest it would be better as a comedy about the era or should be like Dazed and Confused. That would be a completely different story and the writer and director obviously wanted to tell THIS story. They show a young man dealing at age 19 with his world crashing in on him, in several ways, pretty much all at once. I appreciated the story they chose to tell and found the lead character rather charming and a nice portrayal of a not too perfect "good boy." I was interested in following what he was going through. Sure, there have been many similar teen stories, several set in this era, and not a lot of new material was explored. Except that the Skateland theme will be memorable to many of us who enjoyed a skating rink during our childhood and teen years.

One of the sad things about seeing films you like at Sundance is that so many of them never see the light of day again. This may not be a blockbuster, but as the closing credits ran, I thought - this one will make it. I think the casting will help assure that this one isn't going to be mothballed.

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.

'SKATELAND': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

This is no 'ADVENTURELAND'! I've heard comparisons been made between the two and 'ADVENTURELAND' was actually one of my favorite films of 2009, this film is mediocre at best. Both are coming of age tales set in the 1980's about recent high school graduates evaluating their lives and deciding what they want to do next, while working dead end jobs (in this film it's at a skating rink, in 'ADVENTURELAND' it was at an amusement park). They also both co-starred female 'TWILIGHT' stars as the love interests (in 'ADVENTURELAND' it was Kristen Stewart, in this film it's Ashley Greene). Both young stars are talented and more than adequate in their respective roles but lead Shiloh Fernandez (of 'DEADGIRL' fame) is nowhere near as memorable as Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg gave 'ADVENTURELAND' a lot of heart and relatability that this film just doesn't have. 'SKATELAND' is passable sappy drama but ultimately forgettable.

In the film Fernandez plays a 19 year old skating rink manager, named Ritchie Wheeler, at a rink in Texas during the 80's just when skating was starting to dies off in popularity. Due to business deflating the rink is set to close and Ritchie is forced to look for another job. At the same time he has to deal with his parents (Melinda McGraw and Brett Cullen) getting a divorce and his sister (Haley Ramm) always pestering him about college applications. He's also in love with his best friend's sister (Greene). Things become even further complicated when tragedy strikes his best friend (Heath Freeman).

The film was directed by Anthony Burns and written by Burns as well as Heath and Brandon Freeman (who also has a small part in the film). The writing and directing is decent and so is the acting (Greene is a standout) but there's nothing much to the story. It's so routine and unoriginal and nothing really exciting or memorable happens. It's definitely not a bad film it's just also definitely not a very good one either. It's one most people will probably forget quickly after watching it and if that's the case what's really the point?!

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