Skate Kitchen (2018)

• Year: 2018
• Released: 10 Aug 2018
• Country: United States, United Kingdom, Brazil
• Adwords: 3 wins & 11 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7545566/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skate_kitchen
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/skate-kitchen
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 720p
• Language: English, Spanish
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama
• Runtime: 106 min
• Writer: Crystal Moselle, Jen Silverman, Aslihan Unaldi
• Director: Crystal Moselle
• Cast: Rachelle Vinberg, Dede Lovelace, Nina Moran
• Keywords: woman director, new york city, coming of age, teenage girl, mother daughter relationship,

	6.8/10
	72/100
	90% – Critics
	77% – Audience

Skate Kitchen Storyline

Camille, an introverted teenage skateboarder (newcomer Rachelle Vinberg) from Long Island, meets and befriends an all-girl, New York City-based skateboarding crew called Skate Kitchen. She falls in with the in-crowd, has a falling-out with her mother, and falls for a mysterious skateboarder guy (Jaden Smith), but a relationship with him proves to be trickier to navigate than a kick flip.

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Skate Kitchen Movie Reviews

Craftily edited tale of female NYC skateboarders features a ho-hum plot

Director Crystal Moselle discovered a group of female skateboarders in the NYC East Village and along with two co-writers fashioned a fictional tale loosely based on the personalities of this odd sports collective. It’s an ethnically diverse group headed by co-founder Rachelle Vinberg who plays Camille, a shy interloper who lives with her single mom out on Long Island (the mom is played by Elizabeth Rodriguez, one of the few professional actors here).

A good number of critics questioned why Moselle didn’t film this as a documentary, much like her earlier effort in 2015, The Wolfpack. Instead, she had the skaters improvise scenes and develop a story. While the visuals here are nicely done, as it’s not that easy putting together such a large canvas of skaters in motion, the plot unfortunately doesn’t measure up to the acrobatic feats displayed on screen.

The plot features the usual mother-daughter imbroglio where Camille is thrown out of her mother’s home due to her rebellious ways. She joins the skate collective led by a tough lesbian Kurt (Nina Moran) and the more easy-going Janay (Ardelia Lovelace), who along with her supportive father, take Camille in for a short while.

Eventually Camille starts hanging out with the skateboarding guys including Devon (former boyfriend of Janay) and played by Jaden Smith (celebrity actor Will Smith’s son). The girls look poorly on Camille’s decision to hang with the boys and Janay feels particularly slighted as a result of Camille’s new relationship with Devon (while it’s platonic, Janay doesn’t believe it’s as simple as that).

You can probably guess what happens. Camille is banished from the group and eventually returns to live with her mother. There is nothing extraordinarily different or original here in terms of the narrative, and much of the dialogue sounds improvised. If you have an interest in skateboarding then you’ll probably enjoy this film. For me, all that skateboarding became quite tedious. Moselle is a talented editor and knows how to put a film together. Better next time however, is to seek out an established screenwriter who has unearthed some subject matter that is a bit more compelling.

Not a Film That I Would Expect to Like, Yet I Did

Successfully using non-professional actors at the time (with the exceptions of Elizabeth Rodriguez and Jaden Smith) this quasi-documentary centers on the NYC female skateboarding collective known as Skate Kitchen. It falls short at times, but overall I found it another fascinating film from director Crystal Moselle (The Wolfpack).

Although I’m way out of the intended demographic of the movie, I still was quite engaged and interested in the characters of the Skate Kitchen. With the exception of the lead here Camille (Rachelle Vinberg), we really don’t find out a lot about the backgrounds or history of these teens. Thus, the movie is more about the portrayal of female friendship and bonding at this age, with the, at times, inevitable crossing paths with some male skateboarders.

Not a film that I would expect to like, yet I was taken in by the intimate portrayal of these teens, while trying not to judge their futures.

Cute, but awful acting, script, and plot.

Listen, I know that skaters tend to act bored and unamused, but this was a whole new level. No emotion whatsoever, except in the most fake way possible. If you’re making a movie with amateur actors, at least get the actors some acting lessons. Secondly, the dialogue was terrible. No flow or storyline whatsoever, and so, so many awkward moments. Plus most of the skaters are written to be very b****y, yet are portrayed positively, which really grinded my gears. On an artistic level… well, it isn’t. But on an entertainment level, it’s okay, I guess. Doesn’t accurately portray NYC culture (which I am fine with, except everyone is calling it authentic and it really isn’t). It’s fine if you like coming of age movies and if you’re interested in skating. (Too boring to qualify as “fun”, though.)