June 3, 2005

Finally getting around to watching LORDS OF DOGTOWN was a good enough reason to do this series. I remember at the time it got a pretty tepid reception. People were still high on Stacy Peralta’s documentary about the same subject, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS (2001), and didn’t need to see it re-enacted. I get it – when I saw the trailer for Benny Safdie’s THE SMASHING MACHINE I couldn’t understand the point of (from the looks of it) just trying to re-enact footage from the documentary by John Hyams. Why not use the power of cinema to create a perspective of these events that does not already exist on film?

But that’s the thing, that’s what director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Peralta do here with the story of Peralta’s circa 1975 Santa Monica surfer buddies becoming an early influential skateboard team and changing the world. The story centers around cheerful Stacy (John Robinson, ELEPHANT), angry Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch, THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS), incredibly talented Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS), and their rich kid friend Sid (Michael Angarano, BABY HUEY’S GREAT EASTER ADVENTURE), who can’t skate as well because of inner ear issues, but he’s still their homie.

They’re the younger guys trying to fit in at a locals only surf spot and the associated Zephyr Surf Shop owned by weirdo Hawaiian-shirt wearing maniac Skip Engblom, played by movie-stealing Heath Ledger, who also had BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, THE BROTHERS GRIMM and CASANOVA that year. In this role he kept reminding me of Val Kilmer, and a little bit Chris Hemsworth, but I suppose it’s probly a little more like a Johnny Depp character. It was right around that time that people like me caught on to oh shit, this guy Heath Ledger is the real deal. I’d heard he was good here but now I know it’s one of the real treasures in his too-brief filmography, one of the times he got to go most over-the-top but also one of his more grown up roles in that he plays a mentor to the younger stars. And somehow he both goes big and layers in the nuance – I think Skip puts on a bit of an act, and we can sometimes see through to the vulnerabilities he’s trying to hide. An electric performance that makes a good movie great.

One day this guy Frank Nasworthy (comedian Mitch Hedberg, who died a few months before the movie came out) comes into the shop and shows Sid brand new polyurethane skateboard wheels, explaining “they come from oil” and “they grip.” Sid lets the boys try them out and it’s a really effective version of one of those great-moments-in-history scenes you get in biopics. These future skate legends are taking turns on the board and trying to one-up each other in their own styles. Hardwicke and cinematographer Elliot Davis (GET ON THE BUS, OUT OF SIGHT) put you right there with the skaters, even attaching a camera to the board to show the new wheels in action close up, and having legendary pro Lance Mountain skate behind them to shoot the action. It’s all so gorgeously grainy and washed out, the cement banks look like waves, they really capture an energy and momentum that I think in itself justifies making the movie.

(There is also some more exaggerated skating in the movie, like the opening where Stacy street skates barefoot, carrying his surfboard to the beach.)

Stacy is a cute boy with long blond hair, Tony’s younger sister Kathy (Nikki Reed, MAN OF GOD) has a crush on him, but he’s a bit square compared to his friends, and Sid thinks he’s a vibe killer because he doesn’t drink beer and has a job to get to. “He’s not one of us, man. You know, he’s not a pirate.” So when he decides to start a Zephyr skate team he picks pretty much every skate kid who hangs out at the shop except Stacy. When the team enters their first skate contest and Stacy on his own is so impressive that Sid relents and puts him on the team, that’s a bigger honor than if he’d been asked in the first place. It means he’s undeniable.

Jay tries to be a good friend sometimes, like when he says “Hey man, it’s not lookin too good,” trying to break it to Stacy about not being on the team. Other times he’s bitter and jealous, an asshole, really, but an early scene about his home life makes him easier to forgive. The boys skate by his house, excited to show off their new team t-shirts, and he sees some broken records on the ground outside of the house, and some dudes carrying things out. His mom (Rebecca De Mornay, BACKDRAFT) is all smiles and hugs and then doesn’t know what to say when he asks what’s going on. His dad or stepdad or mom’s boyfriend Donnie (William motherfuckin Nick Nightingale Mapother) is packing up his things.

“She’s, she’s crazy, Jay,” is his explanation. He tries to have a good talk with the kid, saying “You’ll always be my boy, you know, don’t worry about that,” telling him he wants him to have his surfboard. He seems pretty genuine, but also he kinda knows he will not be forgiven for leaving. Jay gives him nothing. Not a word.

He looks like he’s gonna cry. He looks like he’s gonna smash something. He goes outside, drops off the roof, skates away. (Later he decides to stab the surfboard to death.)

There are a few girls on the team, but mostly they’re in the movie as girlfriends and groupies, and the movie is overflowing with young dude energy. They’re always wrestling, climbing things, throwing things at each other, shoplifting, driving around yelling at old ladies, giggling and high fiving, generally being obnoxious, but the movie stays tuned at just the right level where I can be a little charmed by their enthusiasm. (Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live, there, etc.) They are the rowdy cool kids who come in and laugh at the dorks doing handstands at the skate contest, which isn’t nice, but the movie makes you feel like yeah, get out of the way, time for some real skateboarding.

They cause controversy and fist fights at the contest, but everybody proves themselves, Jay and Stacy get trophies, they begin a trajectory of fame – parties, magazine covers, turning down offers from bigger companies, rock star Tony autographing girls’ butts, a montage where Stacy guest stars on Charlie’s Angels and poses for photos with an astronaut (Tony Hawk). But also this is a hang out movie, and even as the boys have gone pro and should be practicing for competitions they’re more interested in finding out which rich families are on vacation so they can climb their fences and skate their swimming pools. There’s lots of great skate footage intercut with comical running from cops and outraged property owners. These guys are always fleeing from some mischief.

There are a bunch more notable faces in the cast – Pablo Schrieber (The Wire) and Elden Hensen (IDLE HANDS) work at the surf shop, Melonie Diaz (later in FRUITVALE STATION) is Tony’s girlfriend, America Ferrera (last seen two days earlier in SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS) and Sofía Vergara (soon to be in FOUR BROTHERS) are other girls in their social group, Johnny Knoxville (WALKING TALL) is a corrupting industry bigshot (one of the only characters who looked like a dude in a ‘70s costume to me), Joel McHale (SPIDER-MAN 2), Bai Ling (last seen in REVENGE OF THE SITH), and Alexis Arquette (BRIDE OF CHUCKY) show up briefly, Shea Whigham (ALL THE REAL GIRLS) and Jeremy Renner (DAHMER) appear in a scene together as sleazy manager dudes. Of course the real life Stacy, Jay, Tony and Skip have cameos (and Tony and Stacy are credited for doubling some of their own skating).

Yes, the documentary was probly better, I don’t remember, but having not seen it in 20+ years maybe it’s easier for me to appreciate that this is also really good and gets to cinematically visualize a world that that movie largely just had people talking about. It’s a simple story, a vivid portrait of a time and place, an excitement, and an attitude. It literally takes you along for a ride and doesn’t have to tell you in so many words that this is something special for these mostly lower middle class kids with various shitty parenting situations who nobody expected anything out of to take their group of friends, their unique talents, DIY ethics and local culture, plus some good ideas and an instinct to be different, and turn it into an international phenomenon that continues to this day.

It made me contemplate what exactly skateboarding is to them. It is a sport – it’s athletic, they enter contests, they’re very competitive with each other, there is a sense of sportsmanship or lack thereof. Are they also artists? There are times when the introduction of a new move is crucial, and the originality of their aggressive style of skating is what makes the team both controversial and a sensation. Girls swoon not over them winning but over seeing how they skate. And at the same time it’s a punk-adjacent subculture. Mayhem and rebellion is more important to them than rules and trophies, what constitutes selling out is a consideration, Skip wants pirates, though that arguably ends up biting him in the ass.

Whatever it is, there’s something timeless and universal here in the movie’s depiction of a group of friends who developed their own unique thing together, turned it into a phenomenon, and monetized it. Dreams they never even knew to have come true and also they kinda lose everything. For a while they’re very loyal to Sid because he turned their lifestyle into a living, but one day at a party after someone convinces Tony he should get a cut of the boards Sid is selling, everything goes sour, they all start splitting up to different teams and it sorta gets between them, it goes kinda KNIGHTRIDERS.

I think Sid is sympathetic too – it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to exploit them, and he’s in his own conundrum of having started this thing for fun and then being so successful that he has to become more of a businessman than he ever wanted to to keep it going (and none of the guys working with him are taking it as seriously). When the skaters start jumping ship he gets desperate and then realizes he can’t really charm his way out of it anymore. It’s very sad.

The last scene with Skip is a highlight. It’s some time later, his shop is renamed and owned by someone else, the customer service is clearly better but it has lost all its personality, now a clean sunny place catering to happy suburban families. Tourists. Skip is in the back making a surf board for some kid, answering to a boss, telling him it’ll be done by Saturday. He seems like he’s trying to be a good employee, but then he sits and bows his head and takes a swig of some liquor he has stashed.

He turns on some music and gets to work on shaping that board, flipping it over and eyeing it from different angles, seeming to admire its beauty and the feeling of being the best at this. There’s a sense that now he’s putting on the act for himself, tricking himself into believing he’s content. I suppose it’s characteristic of Ledger’s manic portrayal that the scene left me both depressed about the loss of Skip’s dream and invigorated at the idea that he’s back to the most basic level of the thing he loves.

I read that some friends of the real Skip Engblom were amazed at how accurate Ledger’s portrayal was, which surprised me because I assumed he was just making up a weird type of guy that amused him. They must show him young in DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS but on a quick search all I could find was clips of him as an old guy, and sure enough yeah, it did sound like the voice. Whatever the movie implies, he doesn’t seem to have settled for a life of obscurity – he started the skateboard company Santa Monica Airlines right around that time and though he was never much of a skater he’s in the Skateboarding Hall of Fame for his part in growing it.

(His father was professional wrestler Paavo Ketonen, by the way. Maybe that’s where he gets the carnie showmanship.)

Because of when this came out and the chaotic energy of Ledger’s Skip, I wondered if it could’ve been a factor in Christopher Nolan casting him as the Joker for THE DARK KNIGHT, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Nolan had actually met with Ledger about playing Batman in BATMAN BEGINS, presumably around the time he decided to do this instead. Ledger told him he’d never do a movie like that, but when BEGINS turned out the way Nolan had described it to him and then the possibility of Joker came around suddenly it was more appealing to him. Skip and the Joker are obviously entirely different characters, but I think there’s some overlap of trickster personality and cartoonish physicality. And by the way, there are stories and footage of Ledger skateboarding around the DARK KNIGHT set between takes.

At one point Fred Durst was attached to direct LORDS OF DOGTOWN, then David Fincher, who is credited as executive producer. It was the second film directed by Hardwicke, following THIRTEEN (2003), which was co-written and co-starring Nikki Reed, seen here too. Hardwicke followed this with the very different (but also youth oriented, sorta) THE NATIVITY STORY (2006) before hitting a surprise home run with the first TWILIGHT movie. Of course, they ditched her in favor of male directors for the sequels, which is some bullshit, though I’m sure she wasn’t hoping to be a franchise director all her life. Since then she’s done a bunch of semi-under-the-radar movies like RED RIDING HOOD (2011) and PRISONER’S DAUGHTER (2022) and some prestige-ish television. She did an episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. I didn’t hate her 2019 remake of MISS BALA.

Hardwicke reportedly lived in Venice Beach at some point and knew most of the Z-Boys through surfing. But to me the reason it’s cool that she directed DOGTOWN is that her first movie as a production designer was THRASHIN’ (1986). Having designed that, TAPEHEADS, FREAKED and TANK GIRL I think she has the right counterculture/punk rock-but-commercial background to understand this world. That’s why it feels pretty true. I really like this movie.