Director Katherine Hardwicke’s style affords “Lords of Dogtown” the necessary indie style that will appeal to the target crowd. “Lords of Dogtown” is a lot of fun, and this is due mostly to the energy of the great cast of indie actors like Emile Hirsch, Heath Ledger, Nikki Reed, and America Ferrara to only name a few. Hardwicke inspires entertainment in the teen melodrama and films some truly great skateboarding sequences. Most of all, Ledger is a scene stealer and looks like he’s having a lot of fun as the stoner/slacker/boarder.
With the great soundtrack, and snappy dialogue, Hardwicke’s film is good enough, but never hits the dramatic heights it has potential for. Hardwicke and company never really cover anything that we haven’t already seen. It’s as if the writers already assumed that audiences watched “Dogtown and Z-Boyz,” so instead of giving us the group of people who invent this sport, instead we get a hazy celluloid fantasy. The writers focus on these melodramatic sub-plots rather than exploring the sport, and their influence of the sport. The film becomes this coming of age tale, it then forms into another conventional “misfits trying for competition” story, and then we focus on each individual characters rise and fall from fame and doesn’t really point to any real focus or logic.
The wheels then come off completely by the second half exploring each individual character instead and it becomes a rambling affair. And that’s basically to the fact that the film takes great liberties; anyone expecting this as truth will be disappointed and should keep in mind that much of what is included is pure fiction including certain subplots and character fates. And then, when all is said and done, there’s really not a lot of point “Lords of Dogtown”. Guys become skaters, guys compete, guys become famous, guys fall in love, and the end. For a skater film, it’s a lot of fun, with a great soundtrack but with its dependence on story tropes and messy tonal inconsistencies, I can’t help but think the documentary has much more to offer.