Skateboard movies show tricks on the board while offering a story to keep you entertained.
Skateboard Movies Worth Watching
Skateboard films produce creative tricks, thrilling stunts, and high-energy circumstances that draw an audience. These movies often showcase the talent and subculture of skateboarding, engaging and entertaining those interested in extreme sports. Combining visuals, music, and decent storytelling also contributes to their appeal.
Get ready to swoop into the culture of tricks, actions and storytelling. Check out this list of skateboard movies. Enjoy the action and drama.
1. Lords of Dogtown (2005)
2. Thrashin (1986)
3. Mid90s (2018)
4. Skate Kitchen (2018)
5. Paranoid Park (2007)
6. Gleaming the Cube (1989)
1. Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Lords of Dogtown is a memorable skateboarding movie based on a real-life story. The film follows the development of the skateboarding culture and its personalities. We meet four young boys in the 1970s, living in California, who hang out together and skateboard.
The movie touches on the innocence of the young at heart, living free without the burdens of adulthood.
Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke cut her teeth, helming this iconic movie about skateboarding. The late Heath Ledger shines under her direction as Skip, the owner of a surfboard and skateboard shop. The kids look up to him because he’s the oldest and knows more about surfing and skateboarding than anyone in the area. Skip is also wild and crazy, making his scenes enjoyable.
During a Director’s Cut podcast, Hardwicke talked about using skateboard fans as the background for the competition scene. She was amazed by their enthusiasm for the extreme sport, which was so genuine.
What is Dogtown in Santa Monica?
In the movie, these young skateboarders eat, sleep, breathe and live skateboarding.
The boys hang out with other skateboarders and surfers at the famous Dogtown in Santa Monica — a coffee, breakfast, and lunch spot. Here, American skateboard and surfing nostalgia percolates, keeping the traditions alive.
Empty Swimming Pools
The young, blonde-haired boys with their vans, sneakers and boards ride their skateboards throughout Santa Monica. They want something more from their skateboarding- empty swimming pools- a higher purpose in life.
One boy discovers a dried-up, abandoned swimming pool.
Empty swimming pools become the next wave of skateboarding. The four boys search the neighborhoods for every abandoned pool to conquer and skate.
The young boys skate the empty pools with the drive to find a bigger and challenging cement hole. They glide on their boards to wild parties, pick up cute, tanned girls, and await the next step toward their higher purpose.
2. Thrashin (1986)
Directed by David Winters, this 1986 movie follows how some Valley boys deal with punk rockers. Billed as a teenage adventure, Thrashers received 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The skateboarders called “The Ramp Locals” use their skateboards against the punk rockers. Corey Webster, played by a young Josh Brolin, leads the group, while the street punks follow Tommy Hook, played by Robert Rusler.
The difficulty begins when Corey falls in love with Tommy’s little sister, played by Pamela Gidley, who is visiting from Indiana. It builds during the severe “LA Massacre,” a 20-mile downhill skateboarding race, like all gang conflicts. The prize is a corporate sponsor.
The best scene for any skateboard fan is the final race. A camera is strapped to the front of a skateboard, creating in your seat thrills as an exhilarating sense of the gallant “thrashers” — hence the movie’s title.
3. Mid90s (2018)
Mid90s follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old living in 90s-era Los Angeles. He spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life with his brother and a group of new friends he hangs out with at a local skate shop.
Jonah Hill wrote and directed this film. We know him for his acting talent in 21 & 22 Jump Street and Money Ball.
The coming-of-age movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Hill received a standing ovation.
4. Skate Kitchen (2018)
Crystal Moselle directs Skate Kitchen. The movie focuses on Camille, played by Rachelle Vinberg. She skateboards but is introverted, so she keeps to herself. She hooks up with an all-girl skateboarding group after cutting ties with her mother. She becomes friends with the girls and develops confidence.
She also meets Devon, played by Jaden Smith, a skateboarder who isn’t as he seems. As the story unfolds, Camille learns about true friendship and self-discovery.
What is so remarkable about this skateboarding movie is that it is about a teenage group of girls who skateboard together, compared to Lords of Dogtown, which is about all boys. The only girls in the cult movie are cute and suntanned, lacking depth and intelligence.
The girl’s group is called Skate Kitchen. They are talented and outgoing, and being cute or suntanned is the least of their concerns.
5. Paranoid Park (2007)
Another skateboard movie that caught my eye is Paranoid Park, directed by Gus Van Sant, based on the book by Blake Nelson. The popular book makes it to the silver screen smoothly with an entertaining appeal.
In the story, we meet a teenage skateboarder named Alex, played by Gabe Nevins, a withdrawn 16-year-old boy who has recently discovered Paranoid Park — a massive skate park in Portland, Oregon. The Portland unruly skateboarders built Paranoid Park to create a place to cruise the concrete without being constantly harassed by the cops.
Alex hooks up with another skateboarder at the park, quickly becoming friends. His new friend is known for being an anarchist at the park. But that doesn’t stop Alex from being his friend because he feels he needs more drama to forget about his troubles back home.
Making the Right Choices
Making the right choices defines the story in the movie. Alex and his new friend take a wild shot and hop on a train. A security guard sees them and chases after them. But tragedy falls upon the two teens when the security guard gets killed because he pursued them, and they are angsty over the consequences of their youthful waywardness.
Alex doubts he can convince anyone of what happened that night. Who would believe him if he told the truth? The local authorities investigate the death while troubled Alex expresses himself in a journal. We get to experience his hardship and personal pain, wearing the same shoes as an adolescent boy who only sought to escape from the troubles of home and the concept of mortality.
6. Gleaming the Cube (1989)
Gleaming the Cube is a coming-of-age movie. The action-drama stars a young Christian Slater playing a skateboarder named Brian. Brian’s adopted brother disappeared, and the authorities found him dead. The police say it’s a homicide, but Brian doesn’t believe it.
Brian skateboards around the city, searching for answers about how his brother died. He investigates and discovers that his brother works in a shop that sends weapons to Vietnam.