Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Curious to see this one. Over on his blog, Roger Avary says that Stacy Peralta’s been awarded sole screenwriting credit on this film. It’s obviously as personal a project as one could be involved in, and I’m dying to see how Hardwicke handles it:
Hey Mori,
I remember seeing you at a screening of Rules of Attraction at the Egyptian where you announced that you had been commisioned to write a script, hope its going well dude.
I havent written into aint it cool in a while, but I decided to write in to spread some word about this flick Lords of Dogtown. The screening was at the pasadena Paseo theatre and it was supposedly the very first screening of the film--the color isnt right, theres scratches, temp music, blah blah. One of the executive producers is David Fincher and the director is Catherine Hardwicke from thirteen. If im not mistaken i happened to notice her in the audience and i hoped she would have a better screening than the time I saw a preview of Torque at Warners and Joseph Kahn was there.
The film is based on the true events surrounding the rise of skateboarding as a sport, evolving from surfing as chronicled in the excellent if overlong documentary Dogtown and Z-boys. That films writer/director, Stacy Peralta, is also this films writer and one of the central characters. The film focuses on 3 friends--Peralta, Tony Alva, and Jay Adams as they go from surfers to leaders of the seminal Zephyr skate team to international superstars.
The film starts with the three friends waking up early before school to go surfing, where they encounter Skip Engblom (a very funny Heath Ledger) and his Zephyr crew, who wont let them surf until they say so. This scene was actually kinda silly and i was a little worried that the film was going to be a dud, but i was wrong. Once the film starts to delve into the characters and the dynamics between them, the film ignites. On top of that the skateboard action is nicely photographed and edited. Dont expect to see any supercool stunts, though. The film is very authentic and true to the time period.
Soon Skip sees that these kids are pretty good at this skateboard thing and sees dollar signs for the surf shop he owns, Zephyr surf shop. He makes a bunch of T-shirts and boards and starts the Zephyr skate team. Jay, Tony, and a bunch of other kids get on the team but not Stacy because he is seen as uncool because he actually has an afterschool job and some semblance of responsibility which makes him "not one of them". Skip enters the Zephyr team into a local skateboarding competition and the scene is hilarious. All the other skaters are doing 360's and other really boring moves, set to lame music and when its Zephyr's turn, Skip throws in Sabbath's Iron Man. The reactions from people are a trip and then Jay rips it up, followed by Tony. Stacy enters as a independent skater and rips it too. This is when we start to see the megalomania that Tony is capable of and the aloofness, yet smoldering spirit of Jay.
From this scene the film takes off. The rest of the film is screenwriting 101, the fame rips the friends apart only to have them come back together. Being that this is a true story, that is forgiveable. What is compelling is how these kids change and how the lure of banking off the sport affects them. Jay, probably the best skater out of the trio, goes through the most gripping change. His skating has an aggression that is a not so subtle externalization of the unrest in his heart. The scene in which he agrees to sing the SLINKY toy slogan for money to help his mother, is at the same time humorous and heartbreaking. Emile Hirsch plays this part with wild eyed zeal, i'd seen this kid before in The girl next door, but he shines hard in this film, at the risk of being cliche, he really steals the scenes he is in. The kid playing Stacy is the main kid from that Gus "i dont need to make an edit in my films anymore" Van Zant film Elephant. His performance was okay, but the Peralta character was underwritten, most likely a fault of the writer not being able to look objectively at himself as the character was written as pretty much devoid of flaws. The character of Tony was pretty much an asshole with the only explanation to his asshole/cocky drive was his father being overbearing on him. Sporting fake bucked out front teeth, Heath Ledger dissappears into the character of Skip and channels Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in the Doors. There is no hearthrob Heath happening here and he seems to enjoy being able to play a role and not be a pretty boy, he is truly having fun with this part.
Overall this film was well done. The direction was on point, Hardwicke knows how to handle the drama as shown by a couple of poignant scenes with Jay, and she definitely has a touch for the humor because the film has genuinely very funny moments. There were a couple of missteps here and there, though. The appearance by Johnny Knoxville, looking like Kid Rock dressed up like Snoop Dogg is just wrong. I like Knoxville, but I guess i just could'nt get past the hair(you'll know when you see it). There are a couple of wasted characters, and scenes that go on too long and border on silly but nothing that isnt fixable before it releases next year.
It helps to be a fan of skateboarding or Dogtown and Z-boys to appreciate this film but it is still a really enjoyable film regardless.
Verrrry interesting. Not even sure when this one’s hitting theaters, but it sounds like it’s shaping up nicely at this point.
"Moriarty" out.
