Dogtown and Z-Boys

Saw Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary about the very early days of skateboarding. True to subject matter, it's full of jump-cuts and classic rock, pictures of cool bad boys standing in front graffiti fly and whirl by as aging dudes shot in black and white talk about their glory days. Every so often the action pauses for an ironic interlude. "Dogtown will be right back" the film informs us before playing a cameo one of the kids had on Charlie's Angels. It's a sweet, stylish hagiography of one bunch of kids known as the "Z boys" (even though there was one girl) who influenced the style and technique of skateboarding.

The film is a love letter to the time, the place, the people, just everything skating. It's an overwhelming collage of sound and image. I really really want to talk about the kids' self-described "broken" home lives here. I want to talk about how their whole image was manufactured by some journalist/artist dude working under a variety of pseudonyms, but it just feels mean to focus on these things. Most of the film is bright and fast and overwhelming. It has no drama or conflict, and is only interested in telling the various rags-to-riches stories of a bunch of almost-homeless kids rising to Xtreme sport wealth and fame. The kids (now adults) don't even have anything mean to say about each other. It's so cheery I almost want to make snide comments in self defense.

This film is clearly shot through the eyes of some star-struck fan, just delighted to breathe the same air as these god-people who dared to skate a board! The enthusiasm is infectious, but don't expect to learn very much about these people, people in general, the commercialization of alternative subcultures, or about the world in general. The very subjects of the film remain opaque apart from a cut and dry "this guy represented this company, this girl won that prize" kind of way. One guy shuts down a very tentative probe into his childhood home life. There's also the myth-making talk of "inventing" and "revolutionizing" "everything" but this is kind of winning, in it's starry-eyed little way. A cute, punky little brother of a film.