it's a movie, not a documentary

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2007)

I understand why you might want to compare Lords of Dogtown to Peralta's documentary Dogtown and Z-boys, but I feel the need to point out that Lords of Dogtown is a movie, not a documentary. It's not the movie version of the documentary; it's simply a movie, and it should stand alone as one. That being said, I found it moving, artful, and entertaining. I grew up watching my brother's skateboard videos, and they never held my attention for long. I stumbled upon Lords of Dogtown while flipping through the channels and couldn't look away. The structure has been called too messy and abrupt, but that didn't bother me at all. It lent itself to the messy and abrupt turn of events in the lives of the boys, especially after their "discovery." The movie also took care to chronicle their emotional development while keeping its distance, which kept it from becoming sappy or contrived. The skateboarding clips were "cool" to me, and the acting was spectacular, especially Emile Hirsch. Heath Ledger was obviously asked to take his accent a little too far, but he was playing a pretty eccentric character. All in all, as a movie, it's fantastic.