accessAtlanta

'Lords of Dogtown': A wipe-out of wandering confusion

In her well-regarded directorial debut, "Thirteen," Catherine Hardwicke ditched conventional narrative for a series of anecdotes choreographed with manic camera work that somehow worked to tell the harrowing tale of an out-of-control teenage girl.

Hardwicke tries some of those same moves in her second effort, "Lords of Dogtown." But maybe because most of the material in this movie about the pubescent pioneers of radical skateboarding is derived from a 2001 documentary, "Dogtown and Z-Boys," much of the drama gets wiped out in a wandering confusion of characters, dates and places.

TriStar Pictures 'Lords of Dogtown' C+ The verdict: For the real story, rent the documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys." Director: Catherine Hardwicke Starring: Emile Hirsch, Victor Rasuk, John Robinson, Heath Ledger Run time: 105 minutes Release date: June 3, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for drug and alcohol content, sexuality, violence, language and reckless behavior — all involving teens. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Lords of Dogtown"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Written by "Dogtown and Z-Boys" director Stacy Peralta ("Riding Giants), the script leaps into the world of Peralta (John Robinson), Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) and their pals, who in the 1970s lived in the underclass seaside communities around Venice, Calif., dubbed Dogtown.

Like lost boys who became pirates, they coalesced around Captain Hook character Skip Engblom (Heath Ledger) at his Zephyr surf shop to form Zephyr Skate Team. Pillaging the graffiti-scrawled urban landscape, and soon sneaking into empty swimming pools to create a careening, aerial-based style of skateboarding evolved from surfing, they paved the way for all sorts of extreme sports. But as Alva, Adams and Peralta were lured by competing sponsors, and gained widespread fame and modest fortunes, they quickly lost the innocence and camaraderie of their youth.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Robinson plays Peralta as a winsome good guy. Rasuk renders Alva as a moody egomaniac, and Hirsch acts out Adams as a dysfunctional genius. Wearing ludicrously big teeth, Ledger as Engblom is a boozy, blond ringer for Val Kilmer. Nikki Reed, who co-wrote and starred in "Thirteen," inhabits the "just a girl" shadows as Alva's cute little sister. And Rebecca DeMornay, made-up to appear shockingly lined and weathered, and wearing a grimy Jethro Tull T-shirt, mostly just looks wasted as Adams' druggie mother.

While the actors do a decent job capturing the aura of their characters, the writing, directing and editing stumble. Peralta charts his clunky screenplay on a chronological course, intent on showing the innovations and events — from polyurethane wheels to historic competitions — that resulted in the skateboarding revolution. But Hardwicke and her kinetic lens pull the movie in a different, more disjointed direction. And while the camera closely records all the wild-style action, revved with a '70s hard-rock soundtrack, the inner and outer lives of these really interesting kids are finally reduced to a string of cliches, with situations and dialogue that range from formulaic to laughable.

"Far out," DeMornay declares at one point.

If only "Lords of Dogtown" went a bit more in that direction.