Dogtown And Z-Boys

One may need an acquired taste to sit through this movie. Just like one needs to love beer to be an alcoholic. It doesn't make it any less interesting, just tough to get to grips with.

Shot in TV-style documentary, it is odd this should get a theatrical release, but who cares? The movie is about a Seventies ghetto neighbourhood in L.A. and how kids turn the ruins of past architectural mistakes into something useful...for them.

There are burnt down piers to surf through, concrete basins to skateboard in and empty pools to seize and claim for themselves. The kids are almost tribal in nature, sharing hatred towards outsiders, never splitting up and helping each other out. They have nothing in their life but skating and surfing, no future or plans.

Chance comes in the form of skateboard competitions and some of the kids are catapulted to fame, while others make wrong choices and turn to drugs and partying.

And that's about it, really, but it does hold your attention for 90 minutes. All the documentary clichés are here. Rapid fire cuts, grainy black-and-white shots when interviewing people and a gazillion Seventies tracks. But with such an elitist subject matter, this kind of filmmaking is essential to make the movie appeal to the masses, or, at least, smaller groups of people.

No doubt, Trouble TV-watching, baggy pants, text message generation, middle class kids, trying to be street, will love it. Me? I say it's good to watch once, to help understand an unavoidable culture.