Lords of Dogtown (2005): Dir: Catherine Hardwicke / Cast: Emile Hirsch, Heath Ledger, Rebecca De Mornay, Johnny Knoxville, Nikki Reed: Set in the mid 1970's about a small group surfers and skaters. The film chronicles their true story rise to fame, those who refused, and those who were robbed of the success they deserved. It is realistically portrayed by director Catherine Hardwicke despite it being sometimes distracted or unfocused. The cast bring realism to characters who struggle with fame, upbringing and death. Emile Hirsch plays a skater who was rejected by locals yet gains success before being turned in the wrong direction. Heath Ledger steals scenes as a skateboard manufacturer who produces the team but despite all efforts he ends up watching them all depart to disappointments elsewhere. Interesting that Ledger is intelligent enough to remain true to himself and his work. Rebecca De Mornay plays a hippie mother on dope. Perhaps more screen time would have benefited. Johnny Knoxville is featured as someone out to steal a team promising fame and fortune. The role is straight forward but different for Knoxville. Nikki Reed is featured as a female romantic interest but thankfully the characters are written in a realistic manner in terms of their enthusiasm. Great skateboarding action and strong conviction of fame, success, betrayal, friendship, and the passion behind it all. Score: 9 / 10

I was intrigued by the rawness of this movie. How the young boys lived for surfing, then turned to skate boarding when the new type of wheel was invented. It was touching to see how they struggled at home, how they found meaning in skating and in friend ship and having something together that was on the side of society. Then fame came, and I must say Jay, played by Emile Hirsch, was a bit intimidating. He didn't seem to give a damn, and I didn't like the way he stole Stacy's girlfriend, although I liked him better later in the movie, because he never gave in to fame and he never sold out. Late on in the movie we saw that things just turned out the way they had to, and that was comforting. In the end, the movie left me with a good feeling, even though one of them died from brain cancer. I really liked how Skip kept on making boards, but his shop being taken over by someone who knew how to run a business, and I liked the end scene, where the boys reunited in the empty swimming pool, grudges forgotten, just having a good time. It touched me, and I was left with a feeling that I had witnessed the birth of a new youth culture. We all know how trend setting it became and all that developed from it.

Warning!! Some spoilers!! This is a great movie that chronicles the start of the legendary Z-boys, and their rise from teenagers to skateboarding legends. This film comes off as a more stylized, and personal version of a documentary. You get high octane filming sequences in some parts, and in others you get a grasp of the emotional turmoil that these teenagers went through during this time period. From a technological standpoint this film accomplishes many great things.The cinematography is great. There is this grainy high contrast view that you get of everything. It helps you immerse yourself into the diagesis. The high contrast makes it feel like its being shot by someone in that time period. The camera-work employed by Catherine Hardwicke can be sporadic during action scenes, as is her trademark with her movies. She uses many canted angles and dynamic shots. These work greatly with the action scenes, they help capture the motion of craziness that came from the lifestyle in the 1970's. When they bomb down Venice Hill, you watch the scene unfold from the point of view of the skateboard. It captures the speed and insanity of what they were doing at the time. The angles and shots from the movie all evoke the feeling of you actually being there and watching the Z-boys rip. Each Z-Boy had his own aspirations and his own demons. Jay was the live in the moment boy of the three. He was all about speed and living the life. The camera-work exaggerates this by being sporadic and shaky whenever it is focused on him. You begin to understand how his life is destroying itself with how crazy the camera-work becomes for him. Stacy was the responsible one the three. He was the stable Z-Boy. He held down a job, and became a very successful man. The camera shots on him and controlled and medium shots to close ups. There aren't dynamics the way they exist for Jay because Stacy was composed. Tony Alva was on of the godfathers of skateboarding. He paved the way, and absolutely destroyed contests during his prime. He is the alpha male, the competitor. The camera exemplifies this by shooting a lot of low shots with Tony. This helps to give him a larger than life personality. Each Z-Boy was very different, but they were bound by their insatiable love for skateboarding. The cinematography was different for each Z-Boy, but it was brought together when they hit the streets on skateboards. This is a great movie that gives a great view into the life of the Z-Boys. It shows their rise, the turmoil they faced, and it solidifies them as skateboarding Gods. Everyone will not enjoy this movie, but for skateboarding fans this movie is a glimpse into how it all began. It is an impeccable movie, and I highly recommend it for the average movie goer and skateboard enthusiast alike. It doesn't matter where you go as long as you remember where you started.

I used to be a skater. And after I saw this movie, what I did is pick up my skateboard, wear my Vans skate shoes and skate again. I've been watched this movie for like 10 times already. This movie is talking about a surf shop owner who started a skateboard team, which is a group of young talented skateboarders live in Dogtown in Santa Monica, California. Their style is so raw and wild. The way they skate is totally different than most of the people who skateboarding at that time. This group of skateboarders took the skateboarding culture to a whole another level and the world is trying to follow the way they skate. I think the most important thing that makes this movie good is Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Jay Adams (which were the most famous skateboarder in the team) are involved in the movie and make everything so real. And all the actors are really amazing. If you are a skateboarder or you really like the skateboarding culture, this is a movie you shouldn't miss.