Happy new year all. While we’ve got our feet firmly in the door of 2022 now, I’m loathe to draw too much attention to anything given the anti-climax (or was it the opposite?) of the past two. Don’t touch anything, all that jazz. Instead I will say I am looking forward to the films Jill and I will watch together over the next twelve months.
We start the year off with the loose theme of Fresh Starts and New Beginnings – because when else?
Film: Skate Kitchen (2018)
“A teenage skateboarder makes friends with a bunch of other skateboarding girls in New York City.”
Starring: Rachelle Vinberg ♥ Dede Lovelace ♥ Jaden Smith
*Spoilers*
Camille is an 18-year-old living on Long Island with her mother. Ma is a little conservative and – following a nasty skating accident (OUCH) – bans her daughter from hitting the skate park ever again. (Sidenote but this is pretty much exactly how I tore my hymen when I was about ten, except on/with a bicycle). While Camille swears down she’ll comply, it’s obvious this won’t be the case. Especially when she hits NYC to try and meet Skate Kitchen, a Instagram-famous all-girl skate collective.
The SK girls are instantly welcoming and although Camille is the shy type, she soon starts hanging with them on the regs – enthralled by their detailed sexploits (I hate that I just typed that word) and weed smoking ways. All these hangs are explained away with pretend study sessions in the library but obviously this backfires – and mum Renata (Elizabeth Rodriguez) turns up to embarrass her daughter with a fiery scene at the halfpipe. (How do you do, fellow kids?).
The fall out of this interaction is Camille moving in with new friend Janay (Lovelace) which is a great thing until she starts to get closer to sk8er boi Devon (Smith). What Camille doesn’t initially know is that Janay and Devon had an on-and-off relationship for years – which has left the former heartbroken.
Oops.
Will Camille put her feelings for Devon ahead of the sisterhood and Janay – just as it seems she’s found her rightful place in the world?
Thoughts
This film gives me strong Kids vibes and that can’t be coincidence. It’s lovely to look at, really easy to get into the groove with but there’s not a lot of structure. Which I don’t really mind. The conversations are quite naturalistic (although much cooler that I was at the same age, or ever for that matter) and it all just bobs along. This seems spot on for the coming-of-age chapter of Camille’s life as she struggles with the strained relationship with her mother and her new pals. I felt it.
I don’t really have much more to add. It’s touching and I would have sold my left tit to be part of a girl gang like this back in the day. But now, it makes me relieved to be in my forties and no longer searching for my nook in this world – or having to choose between girlfriends and fuck boys.
(Always choose your girlfriends, kids).
MY RATING: 3.5/5
Hag in a Black Leather Jacket 
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