Skate Kitchen, based around an eponymous real-life Lower Manhattan all-girl skateboard posse, has a barely veiled cinéma-vérité style, the kind that’s very in vogue right now. It’s a bracing, kind of out-of-left-field set of stakes to introduce so early in the film, but making us painfully aware of our young female protagonist’s body is one of the smartest things Moselle does in her first narrative feature after her debut documentary The Wolfpack. Skate Kitchen takes a beguiling slice-of-life approach to its characters. She protests, until mom brings up the fact that she might not only invite more grievous injury to herself, but she may prevent herself from being able to have kids.Skate Kitchen.
“And us girls, we think too much.” There’s more than a hint of self-admonition in her voice.The acceptance of being a girl is one thing, but on a plot level, Skate Kitchen is more about being in a group of girls, and what that means for an individual’s growth and sense of self. “That’s the thing, you can’t think,” Camille replies. “I feel like a lot of good skaters just don’t think,” Janay says. At one point, the two laze about Janay’s bedroom, watching videos of boys doing reckless stunts. Later, after running away from home, Camille talks to temporary roommate Janay (Ardelia Lovelace) about the betrayal that puberty was the disappointment that at some point she would have to deal with and think about her own body.
Of course, it is one of these asshole men (Jaden Smith) who ultimately drives a wedge between Camille and the group, effectively forcing her to pick a female or male realm.This is the great tragedy of female friendship, and as basic as it is, it’s rarely presented with such realism and loneliness as when Camille, cut off from her tribe, endures a dark night of the soul with Jaden and his rowdy roommates. The girls skate, party, and smoke up together they defend each other from “asshole” men in their wider skating circle as best they can. Perhaps Camille had skater friends before this, but it’s clear she’s never been part of such a cohesive family unit.
As such, it’s more than aesthetically engrossing, and Moselle has a great eye for the details of the corner of Manhattan she’s carved out for herself as a filmmaker. Neither can we, honestly, but the effect is a shallow sense of drama, and the sneaking feeling that the film exists more as a Weekend Styles trend-piece than an actual dramatic work. Every scene between Camille and her mother feels forced, as if Moselle can’t wait to get back to the skate park.
But it’s also featherlight, not meant to endure much longer than those brief airborne moments Camille and her friends live for.// 0&(window.dataLayer.push.apply(window.dataLayer,eventsQueue),eventsQueue=),isCurrentlyReporting=!1)}function initializeEventsFromDom(t,e)module.exports.create=domify,module.exports.uri=uri,module.exports.pageUri=pageUri,module.exports.find=find,module.exports.findAll=findAll,module.exports.matches=matches,module.exports.closest=closest,module.exports.getFirstChildElement=getFirstChildElement,module.exports.getPos=getPos,module.exports.prependChild=prependChild,module.exports.insertBefore=insertBefore,module.exports.insertAfter=insertAfter,module.exports.replaceElement=replaceElement,module.exports.removeElement=removeElement,module.exports.clearChildren=clearChildren,module.exports.
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