Butler's Cinema Scene

Rachelle Vinberg

“SKATE KITCHEN” My rating: B

106 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Some of us are  lucky enough to experience one adolescent summer of near  total freedom.  No job, no school, no responsibilities.

Just hanging out with your friends and trying — without too much angst — to figure out who you are.

That’s the situation offered in “Skate Kitchen,” Crystal Moselle’s docudrama-ish  study of female teen skateboarders whiling away the hot months on the streets of NYC.

The film is practically unplotted, drifting from one episode to another, this encounter to the next, without a whole lot of rhyme or reason. But as an immersive experience, one that puts you into the sneakers of its young protagonists, the film has few equals. It feels utterly, totally alive.

Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) is not looking forward to a summer cooped up in the Queens apartment she shares with her hospital worker single mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez). The pair are almost always at odds over Camille’s love of skateboarding, which Mom views as dangerous; Camille has come up with all sorts of ingenious ploys to cover up how she’s actually spending her days.

Left to her own devices, Camille goes exploring, taking the train across the East River (clutching her skateboard the whole time) and probing the byways of Manhattan. She soon finds skateboard parks where others her age are doing their acrobatic stunts; little by little she is accepted by a group of girls who are as unfettered by convention as she is.

The usually shy Camille opens up under the influence of these new friends. They bond, smoke dope, rudely discuss their sex lives, challenge teen boys to competitions.

They frequently trespass on private property that offers new skateboarding challenges, and relish the opportunity to play Bugs Bunny to the security guards’ Elmer Fudd.

And whenever possible they record their exploits on their cell phones for dissemination to anyone who’s interested.

Camille befriends Janay (Ardelia Lovelace), even moving into her new bud’s family apartment for a few weeks.  That relationship hits the wall when Camille finds herself in a budding romance with Janay’s ex (Janden Smith),  a photographer who specializes in skateboarding subjects. (This mini drama is about a close as “Skate Kitchen” comes to conventional plotting.)

This is Moselle’s first feature after a career in documentaries. She was behind “The Wolf Pack,” a doc about six  brothers raised in virtual bondage in a high-rise apartment and learning about the world almost  exclusively through a huge DVD collection.

“Skate Kitchen” has a strong documentary feel.  The “actors” are real street kids who more-or-less portray themselves, and much of the action appears unscripted and unrehearsed.

But it’s the film’s overall aura that really wows us. After watching it you know what it’s like to face each new day with nothing much to do except have fun.

| Robert W. Butler