Skate Kitchen Rides In
Wolfpack Director Zooms In on Girl Board Gang
Skateboarding movies are nothing new, though the iconic “extreme sport” has seen its peaks and valleys in terms of popularity over the years. 1986’s Thrashin‘ is generally regarded as the first major skateboarding movie (not counting 1978’s little-seen film, Skateboard), though the anti-establishment art form first became prominent in the 1970s thanks to the efforts of punk pioneers like Stacey Peralta, as chronicled in the 2001 documentary, Dogtown & Z-Boys, as well as the historical drama based on their adventures, Lords of Dogtown.
The latest film about the dangerous – but exciting – punk rock sport is Skate Kitchen. Starring a group of female skaters, the eponymous Skate Kitchen crew, as themselves (as well as Jaden Smith, who is an amateur skater himself), the film follows their lives in a 21st-century take on the streetwise teen drama. Director Crystal Moselle is best known for her documentary, The Wolfpack, about a group of cinema-obsessed youths who spent their entire lives trapped in their apartment by an overbearing father, but Skate Kitchen, despite drawing from real life and possessing a gritty NYC realism, is a scripted drama.
More so than baseball, basketball, football, or any other sport, skateboarding is a cinematic spectacle without compare. Vert skaters move back and forth on a half-pipe, flying through the air and performing aerial tricks with clever-ish names like Sacktap, Method Air, and Benihana. Meanwhile, street skaters (the main focus here) navigate courses – or the city – while grinding on handrails and performing kickflips over small gaps. Despite how awesome skateboarding looks, it’s also incredibly dangerous, and every true skateboarder has a ton of injuries they wear with pride.
This plays a role in the film, which opens with one of the teens suffering an injury and being banned from ‘boarding by her mother. Her injury is referred to as getting “credit carded.” We’re not going to describe it here, but if you use your imagination, you’ll probably figure it out… Or just do a quick Google search.
Skate Kitchen is currently playing in only a handful of theaters in the country, but is expected to expand in the coming weeks. As to whether the film will become a genuine mainstream hit remains to be seen, but initial audiences are impressed, and critics have been praising Skate Kitchen for its female-centric storytelling, earthy depiction of New York City, and – of course – its plethora of kick-ass skateboarding action.
