Lords of Dogtown (PG-13, 2005)

LORDS OF DOGTOWN focuses on three wannabe Venice Beach surfers turned champion skaters -- Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), Peralta (John Robinson), and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) -- as well as their initial mentor, scruffy Zephyr team founder Skip (Heath Ledger). The virtuoso skaters are laying the foundations for Tony Hawk, video games, and the X Games. Their visions of how they might leave lasting impressions differ. Skip plays loud music (Hendrix is a favorite), puts the team through tough paces on their boards, and even provides them with a vague sense of belonging when he gives them matching t-shirts. As the boys face their suddenly burgeoning fame (pretty girls in shorts, all-night parties, televised competitions, and endorsements), greed is incarnated by opportunistic promoter Topper (Johnny Knoxville pimped out to resemble Kid Rock). Jay is especially torn, as he wants to support his weary working mom (Rebecca De Mornay), but really doesn't want to have to sing the "Slinky" song to make money.

Poised to be great, fast fun, this movie is too often slowed by clichés. The most thrilling moments in Lords of Dogtown feature skateboard wheels. More precisely, cameras mounted on and even under skateboards, so that the whirring of wheels, slamming over pavement, and hurtling headlong into air seem immediate and vital. But aside from this stunty camerawork, Catherine Hardwicke's second feature (her first was the affecting Thirteen) tells a conventional story. Based on the real life adventures of the same skaters at the center of writer Stacy Peralta's documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, in turn based on a 1999 Spin article and Peralta's own skateboarding experiences, the fictionalized film is less about cultural resistance and wild riding in empty swimming pools than about capitulation.

The movie's most compelling question is unresolvable, as in itself it replicates the problem of selling out, by further exploiting the success of Peralta's documentary. Skip, of all people, ends up looking like the heroic holdout, broke but determined to stay true to his vision -- always ready to surf, never overwhelmed by career.