This is an Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, and is shot by a very young filmmaker who is also a character in his own story. The movie opens with a long elegantly shot series of three young men skateboarding through largely empty city streets in an unnamed town. At first it appears that this is what the film is about, it in actuality forms a small portion of the running time.
Most of the movie is about the struggle to move out into the
world as an adult and become a decent, functioning human being despite a
lack of economic opportunities and (maybe more important) a poisonous
cultural upbringing that teaches young straight men to hold emotions in,
laugh off pain, and express frustration through anger and violence.
Bing Lui is the filmmaker and he is largely off camera as a result. His subjects include Keire, the lone African-American in a mostly
white skateboarding scene; Zack, the de facto
leader of the group, who suddenly finds himself catapulted into
adulthood when he gets his girlfriend Nina pregnant; Nina, who grows in
maturity and confidence when Zack struggles to measure up to his
responsibilities; and Liu and Keire's mothers, both of whom prove to be
generous and insightful subjects. What emerges are the very real challenges that under-educated, poorly raised men in our country face, with a back drop of a government trying desperately to help them less.
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