She goes hard to persuade her friends she speaks the truth, and she shrugs it off when they poke fun at her stoner monologue. As the gang sits around, smoking weed and shooting the shit, Kurt waxes poetic on the theory that humanity is currently living in a simulation.
Kurt is immediately likable, a cad who will push anything right to its tipping point but not so much that anyone would get hurt - emotionally or physically. The films make a compelling pair, exploring male and female friendships and analyzing youth through the lenses of mass and social media.Īmong the group of skaters Camille befriends is queer comic relief Kurt (Nina Moran), whose first lines are tall-tale boasts about getting fingered in a bush. In short, Moselle’s documentary reads like truth told as fiction, while Skate Kitchen reads like fiction told as truth. Though Moselle’s narrative feature debut, Skate Kitchen, tells a fictional story, the director again draws heavily from her subjects’ own personal histories, this time constructing a story about teen girls finding themselves and each other at the local skate park. The film was a meta-commentary on movie lovers’ susceptibility to the fantasy of cinema spilling over into the real world.
Moselle’s debut documentary The Wolfpack, about some charismatic siblings who spent their free time painstakingly reenacting their favorite films, teetered on the edge between verité and performative realism. Eventually, she just maps out the long train ride to where the girls skate and tags along, observing them with interest, as though she’s studying the nature of girlhood friendships. A lonely Long Island teen, Camille scrolls through the Instagram profiles of a group of female NYC skateboarders called Skate Kitchen, faving all their videos, escaping in her imagination to a place where she’s not the only young woman kick-flipping on the concrete. Camille injures herself and promises her overzealous mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez) she’ll give up skating, but it’s not that simple. Two little boys eye her, kids at least seven years her junior, and yet they’ve already been primed to be intimidating and belittling to girls entering their spaces. Courtesy of Magnolia PicturesĬrystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen opens with teen skater Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) doing flip tricks by herself at the park. Oh and I liked the tone of the final shot.Among the cast members appearing in “Skate Kitchen,” Crystal Moselle’s narrative feature debut, are (from left): Rachelle Vinberg, Ajani Russell, Nina Moran, Dede Lovelace, and Alex Cooper. I suppose it's not especially great but it's certainly alright/fairly good and overall, yes I'd (maybe cautiously, as it won't interest everyone) recommend this film. Its a bit predictable or cliched in parts but it's not as bad as it potentially could have been, although I realise it won't appeal to everyone (some people may argue why should we care at all about somewhat bratty kids? etc.) but I thought it was at least somewhat immersive and not sugary sweet, disingenuous or anything like that. The cast do a good job - I thought it seemed quite realistic with the female characters being pretty frustrated and exasperated at times with the situations they find themselves in. I thought the music used was quite good, it gives the film an edgier feel, without perhaps being relied on too much to make it feel actively overbearing as such. It covers themes such as self identity, belonging and of course teenage rebellion.
I thought the music used was quite good, it gives the film an edgier feel, without This film is a coming of age, adolescent teen based film set in NYC, about a group of girls in the skateboard community. This film is a coming of age, adolescent teen based film set in NYC, about a group of girls in the skateboard community.