Review of Lords of Dogtown (2005) by John W — 20 Jun 2011

Filmmaker and skateboarder Stacy Peralta made a hell of a documentary in 2001, Dogtown and Z-Boys, that focused on the Zephyr skateboarders out of Venice, California, who essentially revolutionized the sport of skateboarding in the 1970's. Stacy himself was one of those boys, and in Lords of Dogtown he revisits his source material for a feature film. His script is taken on with gusto by director Catherine Hardwicke, she of the excellent Thirteen, and they bring in a love triangle, drugs and identity issues. The film goes for the jugular as Peralta, as played by John Robinson, Jay (the great Emile Hirsch) and Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk) go from the streets to practicing in drained swimming pools, all the while getting famous.

Hardwicke shoots the scenes of boarding with thunderous vigor, with stunts choreographed by Alva. Sure, the film's momentum is stalled when the cliches of success are allowed to seep in, but the actors excellently transcend those cliches. Heath Ledger delivers perhaps his most flamboyant performance as Z-Boys guru Skip Engblom, and even though Hirsch, Rasuk and Robinson have skating doubles, they still manage to register deep performances, giving these daredevils all too human faces.