An amazing insight into the lives of the Z-Boys

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2011)

Warning!! Some spoilers!! This is a great movie that chronicles the start of the legendary Z-boys, and their rise from teenagers to skateboarding legends. This film comes off as a more stylized, and personal version of a documentary. You get high octane filming sequences in some parts, and in others you get a grasp of the emotional turmoil that these teenagers went through during this time period. From a technological standpoint this film accomplishes many great things.
The cinematography is great. There is this grainy high contrast view that you get of everything. It helps you immerse yourself into the diagesis. The high contrast makes it feel like its being shot by someone in that time period. The camera-work employed by Catherine Hardwicke can be sporadic during action scenes, as is her trademark with her movies. She uses many canted angles and dynamic shots. These work greatly with the action scenes, they help capture the motion of craziness that came from the lifestyle in the 1970's. When they bomb down Venice Hill, you watch the scene unfold from the point of view of the skateboard. It captures the speed and insanity of what they were doing at the time.
The angles and shots from the movie all evoke the feeling of you actually being there and watching the Z-boys rip. Each Z-Boy had his own aspirations and his own demons. Jay was the live in the moment boy of the three. He was all about speed and living the life. The camera-work exaggerates this by being sporadic and shaky whenever it is focused on him. You begin to understand how his life is destroying itself with how crazy the camera-work becomes for him. Stacy was the responsible one the three. He was the stable Z-Boy. He held down a job, and became a very successful man. The camera shots on him and controlled and medium shots to close ups. There aren't dynamics the way they exist for Jay because Stacy was composed. Tony Alva was on of the godfathers of skateboarding. He paved the way, and absolutely destroyed contests during his prime. He is the alpha male, the competitor. The camera exemplifies this by shooting a lot of low shots with Tony. This helps to give him a larger than life personality. Each Z-Boy was very different, but they were bound by their insatiable love for skateboarding. The cinematography was different for each Z-Boy, but it was brought together when they hit the streets on skateboards.
This is a great movie that gives a great view into the life of the Z-Boys. It shows their rise, the turmoil they faced, and it solidifies them as skateboarding Gods. Everyone will not enjoy this movie, but for skateboarding fans this movie is a glimpse into how it all began. It is an impeccable movie, and I highly recommend it for the average movie goer and skateboard enthusiast alike. It doesn't matter where you go as long as you remember where you started.