I watched this little gem of a film recently with my teenage daughter, and we were pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the style of this film. It's got a documentary feel to it that is very natural and freewheeling. The freedom of the kids that comprise Skate Kitchen gave me nostalgia going back 40 years to the summers I spent with my teenage tribe roaming free and having fun together. A beautiful thing. The storyline of Camille who feels so alone until she reaches out and connects with her tribe of female skaters is so relatable - it's a great coming of age theme and a great feminist theme as well. Besides this layer of finding your tribe, the film also explores the whole culture of urban skateboarding - something I knew nothing about and really enjoyed immersing myself in during the film. The other layer of the storyline that I thought was well done was Camille's journey of shifting custody among her parents to try to get what she needed at different stages of her childhood and adolescence - it was heartbreaking and gave insight into her character.

After watching the film, I was very curious how it was made, and I think it's really interesting that Skate Kitchen collaborated on the script and formed part of the ensemble for the film. My daughter thought so much of the film, especially the dialogue, felt very natural/real. I think the director and the cast did a great job with this film. It's a big risk to put your real life and real story on the screen and dedicate so much time scripting and telling it in a novel way.

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.

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.