Moselle proves acutely sensitive to Camille’s emotional confusion, as well as her natural introversion.
Not everyone is as committed to this battle of the sexes, however, and when Camille finds herself getting close to Devon (Jaden Smith, blending in nicely), one of the park’s male regulars, the specter of rivalry and betrayal threatens to unravel her connection to her new community.
The most raucous of the bunch is Kurt (an irrepressible Nina Moran), gleefully thumbing her nose at the male skaters who regard her and her posse with barely veiled contempt. What has emerged is a touching ode to the rewards and challenges of female friendship, one that becomes particularly poignant when Camille leaves home and begins crashing with the warm, sensitive Janay (Dede Lovelace). “Skate Kitchen” is Moselle’s first fiction feature, though with its artfully rough edges and its intrinsic feel for group dynamics, it shows much of the same skill that the director brought to her 2015 documentary, “The Wolfpack.” As it happens, Skate Kitchen is a real collective, and Moselle initially toyed with the idea of making a nonfiction work about Vinberg and her friends, until she decided instead to work with them to create their own characters and shape the material into a dramatic narrative. What Moselle is after is in some ways a longer, more sustained version of what the girls are already doing: With a designated photographer, Ruby (Kabrina Adams), among them, they’re constantly taking pictures and videos of each other and sharing their best moves on social media. Sometimes the vibe is blissfully laid-back sometimes the camera’s concentration matches the skaters’ own. Moselle and her cinematographer, Shabier Kirchner, capture their characters’ moves with a fluidity that toggles between the visceral and the lyrical. The acrobatics get more daring when the girls take their boards to the streets of Manhattan, where they turn plazas into personal playgrounds and get yelled at by the occasional security guard. Flipping, tripping and quickly getting back on their feet comes naturally to these high-spirited young women as they navigate their skate park’s curving slopes, which are invariably crowded with boy skaters.
But her injury is hailed as a rite of passage and a badge of honor by the girls who make up the New York collective Skate Kitchen, whom she begins hanging and rolling with. (If you must know more, you might find a Google search for “skateboarding credit card” informative.)Ĭamille’s single mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez) urges her never to get on a board again. That’s a relief, especially in light of the gruesome fall that kicks off the otherwise exhilarating “Skate Kitchen,” as Camille (Rachelle Vinberg), a shy, sensitive 18-year-old from Long Island, tackles a mean little outdoor staircase and winds up shedding blood on the pavement. Skating from one theater to another would be appropriate, of course, but is mercifully optional for the less coordinated among us. A young person on a skateboard becomes a precious, fleeting image of liberation in Crystal Moselle’s “Skate Kitchen” and Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap.” Both these movies - one a drama, the other a documentary, each superbly shot and richly informed by the grit and agony of real life - premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and now, by coincidence or design, they are arriving the same Friday on Los Angeles screens.Ī more rewarding double bill this weekend would be hard to imagine, provided you don’t mind making the trek between the ArcLight Hollywood and Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.