Lords of Dogtown (2004)

"[Hardwicke] brings a social realism to Dogtown and a fondness for the sport...  Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News
"Lords of Dogtown is as beautifully structured as one of the Z-Boys' graceful and intricate maneuvers.  Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Editor's Note Anyone who grew up in Southern California will talk with both nostalgia and frustration about the periodic summers of drought in which the oppressive heat is exacerbated by a shortage of its antidote--fresh water. In 1975, a clan of scruffy, rebellious teens found a way to turn this dearth to their advantage, using the sloping bowl of empty suburban swimming pools to create a new underground sport--skateboarding. The development, explosion, and corporate co-opting of this now ubiquitous sport was the subject of Stacy Peralta's acclaimed 2002 documentary, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS. Peralta, one of the original skaters who came to be known as the "Z-Boys," has penned this dramatized account of his own story, a kinetic and gripping tale with dramatic turns reflective of the extreme crests and falls of those concrete waves. When a shipment of polyurethane wheels arrives at Venice Beach's Zephyr surf shop, the proprietor, Skip (Heath Ledger), puts together a team of roughly a dozen local layabouts to try his new idea. At lightning speed, the three most talented become international stars, infusing sexuality, danger, and punk rock into a sport formerly associated with kneesocks and lite pop. LORDS OF DOGTOWN principally follows these three as they deal with sudden fame and fortune. Stacy (John Robinson) is the elegant, responsible beauty. Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk) is a frizzy-haired heartthrob with an overblown ego and penchant for pugilism. And Jay (Emile Hirsch), arguably the most compelling of the leads, supports his drug-addicted mother and is too cynical to be lured by the temptations of corporate vultures. Director Catherine Hardwicke, who fused gritty documentary techniques and high teen drama to great acclaim in her first feature, THIRTEEN, perfects that style here. The combination of a pulsating punk rock soundtrack, dynamic skateboarding sequences, and a gripping narrative combine in a forceful sweep that keeps viewers glued to the screen.

	Emile Hirsch
	John Robinson
	Rebecca De Mornay
	William Mapother
	Art Linsonl, et. al. - Executive Producer
	Catherine Hardwicke - Director
	Chris Gorak - Production Designer
	Elliot Davis - Cinematographer
	John Linson - Producer
	Mark Mothersbaugh - Original Music By
	Nancy Richardson - Editor

Entertainment Weekly
"Hardwicke is the rare director whose work is at once kinesthetic and delicate. She stages LORDS OF DOGTOWN with a rushing, caught-on-the-fly realism...she makes her characters vibrant and full." 06/10/2005 p.81-82

New York Times
"[A] blast....[The] scenes have both the loose, stop-and-start rhythms of a long summer day and the restless, competitive energy of young men in the heat of adolescence." 06/03/2005 p.E13

USA Today
"Heath Ledger is a keen acting surprise....The skating scenes are their own reward..." 06/03/2005 p.10E

Los Angeles Times
"The rowdy and sometimes painfully raw LORDS OF DOGTOWN is a perfect marriage between film and skateboarder, and the way in which the camera tracks every incredible move of the movie's virtuosos gives it a dynamic, exhilarating energy." 06/03/2005 p.E10

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[T]hat rare teen flick that truly understands the teenage soul." 09/01/2005 p.101

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 5 of 10
Watching Lords of Dogtown, I momentarily became nostalgic for the summer of 1977, when I would ride my skateboard down my inclined driveway, then see if I could make the sharp turn onto the sidewalk without wiping out. But nostalgia is hardly a reason to recommend a movie. A narrative re-telling of events previously chronicled in the documentary Dogtown and the Z-Boys (which was directed by the writer of this film, original Z-boy Stacy Peralta), Lords of Dogtown will have limited interest for those who exist outside of the skateboarding community. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 4 of 10
Now we have Lords of Dogtown, a fiction film based on the very same material and indeed written by Peralta. Not only is there no need for this movie, but its weaknesses underline the strength of the doc. How and why Peralta found so much old footage of skateboarding in 1975 is a mystery, but he was able to give us a good sense of those kids at that time. Although Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Lords of Dogtown, has a good sense for the period and does what she can with her actors, we've seen the originals, and these aren't the originals. Nobody in the fiction film pulls off stunts as spectacular as those we see for real in the documentary. - Roger Ebert