Skate Kitchen
Directed by: Crystal Moselle
Written by: Crystal Moselle
Starring: Rachelle Vinberg, Ardelia Lovelace, Nina Moran, Jules Lorenzo, Jaden Smith, Elizabeth Rodriguez
Drama - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 23 Aug 2018
Written by: Crystal Moselle
Starring: Rachelle Vinberg, Ardelia Lovelace, Nina Moran, Jules Lorenzo, Jaden Smith, Elizabeth Rodriguez
Drama - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 23 Aug 2018
Crystal Moselle has a knack for bumping into fascinating people. A few years ago, she met six brothers who were homeschooled and confined to their micro-New York apartment for years only learning about the outside world through film. Moselle made a documentary about them called The Wolfpack shocking audiences across the world. Next, Moselle befriended a female skate collective while riding the subway. She wrote a fictionalized version of their lives, cast them to play variations of themselves, and now we have Skate Kitchen - a remarkable film which opened my eyes to a world I had no idea existed and a way of life I will never understand, but can appreciate.
One of Skate Kitchen’s main themes is challenging stereotypes. The images which define skate culture are boys with saggy pants, smoking weed, and an ambivalent attitude to most subjects outside of the skate park. The girls in Skate Kitchen also smoke weed and are ambivalent about life’s more serious subjects. Message received – girls can not only skate as well as the boys, they talk and act the same. The idea is not central to the plot; Moselle did not make a morality play and she doesn’t admonish the guys or the audience for initially seeing female skaters as lesser. The girls can and do speak for themselves. Moselle says Skate Kitchen preaches you can do things you believe or are told you cannot do, be it skateboarding or any other activity. I am not as confident this larger theme comes across, but call me a convert to the team who says girls can skate.
One of Skate Kitchen’s main themes is challenging stereotypes. The images which define skate culture are boys with saggy pants, smoking weed, and an ambivalent attitude to most subjects outside of the skate park. The girls in Skate Kitchen also smoke weed and are ambivalent about life’s more serious subjects. Message received – girls can not only skate as well as the boys, they talk and act the same. The idea is not central to the plot; Moselle did not make a morality play and she doesn’t admonish the guys or the audience for initially seeing female skaters as lesser. The girls can and do speak for themselves. Moselle says Skate Kitchen preaches you can do things you believe or are told you cannot do, be it skateboarding or any other activity. I am not as confident this larger theme comes across, but call me a convert to the team who says girls can skate.
Conversion implies I once held the opposite view; however, I have never given female skateboarders any thought at all. I have never skateboarded. I do not speak their slang, I am not interested in their lifestyle, and am sure if I were to meet them, the conversation would be halting and awkward as we fumbled for a subject we could engage on. Yet, these girls are fascinating to watch and, by the end, they earned my empathy and support. This is a sign of superior filmmaking. Here is a subject I neither understand nor care about, and now I feel differently after watching it. Skate Kitchen hits harder than The Wolfpack and is a more enjoyable experience than similar female empowerment films like Girlfight.
Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) is lonely in suburban Long Island where she lives with her single mom. She has acquaintances at the local skate park, but no friends. Through social media, Camille notices a female skate crew who hang out in Manhattan and is curious enough to take the long train ride out there to see them in action. Camille’s mom (Elizabeth Rodriguez, Logan) looks down on Camille’s skating instinct and after Camille suffers a particularly gruesome injury, makes her swear to stop skateboarding. Breaking her promise, sneaking into the city with her board, and bit-by-bit gaining acceptance into the Skate Kitchen collective, Camille must balance lying to her mom, making new friends, and figuring out the long stares she receives form some of the boy skateboarders.
Camille found her people. There are always other people in the world who care about the same things you do, the hurdle is finding them. It’s the Skate Kitchen crew which lends the film its top-notch ensemble feel. These girls are all real skaters and non-professional actors – their performances work. The standout supporting character is Kurt (Nina Moran). This raspy-voiced pistol with an omnipresent backwards cap will not suffer any condescension from male skaters or anybody else. Kurt will run at and tackle the biggest guy in the park if he needs a reminder on social etiquette or one of the apparently long list of skateboarding’s unwritten rules.
There are more predictable plot elements such as a falling out between Camille and her mom and conflict between Camille and her crew regarding boys. However, Moselle’s tendency to throttle back and just watch the group skateboard down the street breathes life into the pacing and lets us relax and enjoy the breeze with the boarders when folks on screen get tense. When Camille first meets the female pack, she does not immediately transform into another persona. The process is gradual and stutter-stepped as she experiments with new conversations, recreational drugs, and the party scene. Her new life comes off more realistic as the script takes its time to say you don’t change in a day, but over weeks and months.
Skate Kitchen will find plenty of fans among those who trumpet films about girls overcoming stereotypes and proving they can do anything boys can do. While I also applaud stories about breaking out of places where life has you pigeon-holed, I will urge folks to see a movie about skateboarding for two reasons: 1) it’s refreshing to learn about a sub-culture you know nothing about and walk away with a new appreciation and 2) it looks like a really good time skateboarding with your best friends down city streets with the wind blowing your hair back. Even if I was 25 years younger, I still wouldn’t attempt skateboarding, but now I am happy there are groups who do.
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