Young skaters hit life’s bumps
As the first 15 or 20 minutes of “Minding the Gap” rolled on, I kept thinking of movies I’d rather be watching. Then I thought about the errands I needed to run after the screening. I looked at my watch quite often.
That’s because I had no desire to spend two minutes, let alone 93 minutes, with a group of foul-mouthed skateboard punks who drank beer and smoked pot and laughed about stupid things and argued about stupid things. Get off my lawn, indeed.
But then the film becomes something else, something unexpected: a layered, complex portrait of a group of broken young men (and one broken young woman) whose prospects in the seemingly dead-end town of Rockford, Ill., appear bleak. All four main characters are from broken homes and dysfunctional families, and the effect that has on their lives is unmistakable.
One of the main characters is Bing Liu, the film’s director, whose late stepfather regularly beat him and his mother, an immigrant from China. He bonds with Keire, an African American whose father, now deceased, beat him. But the film’s star couple are Zack and Nina, a pair of unwed parents whose troubled relationship forms the broken heart of the movie.
Bing has been shooting video of his friends since high school, so “Minding the Gap,” which starts Friday, Aug. 17, at the Roxie in San Francisco, was literally years in the making. We watch the characters grow up before our eyes.
No wonder Steve James, whose “Hoop Dreams” is one of the most influential documentaries ever, signed on as an executive producer. It’s the kind of rich, character-driven portrait of disadvantaged dreamers that is his specialty.
Zack, Bing and Keire escape their troubles by skateboarding — the skateboarding scenes are kinetic and breathtaking, with Bing taking us along for the ride.
"This device cures heartache,” Keire writes on his skateboard, and we can see why.
As they grow older, skateboarding recedes from their lives, and responsibility kicks in. Keire works as a dishwasher and buys his first car. Zack is a roofer, and Nina is a waitress. Living paycheck to paycheck, Zack and Nina struggle and argue as they raise their infant son. Nina, estranged from her mother and father, moves into her aunt’s house. Zack gives Colorado a brief try — without providing child support.
"Myself, I’m a good person,” Zack says. “It just sucks knowing you’re your own worst enemy.”
That’s ultimately what “Minding the Gap” is about: the struggle to live a good life despite the forces aligned against it.