Movie Review: North Hollywood Is For The “Wasted Youth”
Watching North Hollywood, I kept on thinking of Mid90s and Lords of Dogtown. Both films can be considered “sports” movies that are really character pieces; attracting viewers through the “wasted youth” lens of a bunch of “slackers” that are actually really talented. The tale of someone underestimated only to become really valued will always be attracting, and, in some ways, North Hollywood is that age old tale; a young man, feeling lost, finds himself in his friends and his surprising skills. What makes North Hollywood special is that its lead’s skills aren’t just skateboarding …. but also lying.
North Hollywood will naturally become a cult classic because it totally gravitates to the glitz and shimmer of IDGAF mentalities. Now, of course, this phrase can feel overused, and, to be frank, DO YOU REALLY NOT CARE? Yet, North Hollywood follows the story of Michael (Ryder McLaughlin); a teen who feels bashed by the very world he’s trying to fit into but finds his place in the eternally “counter-culture” world of skateboarding. The reason I quote “counter-culture” is because skate-boarding is a mainstream world that has managed to maintain an image and certain authenticity of alienation. For decades, it has embraced outcasts and a look of “isolation,” in part, because you have to be really bold to toss your board over a railing with a 50/50 chance of wiping out publicly. KUDOS TO YOU KING! Yet, Michael isn’t perfect because while the world may not always believe in him……he isn’t, exactly, the most truthful.
Portraying “wasted youth” can be a cross because you either get a tale of placing them on a pedestal of fallen victims to a cruel society and older generations’ prejudice, which isn’t all wrong, or you persecute them as a group of whiny people with no purpose or desire for one, which isn’t all right. Writer/ directer Mikey Alfred prefers to make people…. people. Michael doesn’t have it easy but he sure looks for problems, and has a pile of self-pity that puts him into some emotional clashes with his childhood, best friends Jay (Nico Haraga) and Adolf (Aramis Hudson), whom are not exactly beacons of clarity when it comes to their futures, but what makes them so likable, even moreso than Michael, is that they still believe you should be a good person even during rough times. This is a recurring theme through other characters/ friends like, Walker (Angus Walker) whose faded pro-skater career has made him an unwanted guru for Michael. Yet, Michael’s lostness is his excuse for, at times, making those who keep him charmed and solid, like his girlfriend Rachel (Miranda Cosgrove), feel like losers to him. Thus, the nuance of North Hollywood is that is not just about an underestimated protagonist as much as a kid who hurts like he feels he has been hurt, and put his body at risk because he feels his soul is already tossed.
I’ve always admired sports, in general, because I think that it is an act liberation. Of course, as you see Michael completely batter and bloody himself, you will think…. where is the freedom? Especially because he gives so much time and focus to an act that, eventually, he skills but, at first, totally bests him. Yet, when you juxtapose his efforts with a dad that does not believe him, a duo of best friends that don’t understand his newfound passion, and a first love that knows her path, you can see why Michael is breezing through lifts and jumps to a killer soundtrack: when everybody thinks they know or try to push over you a “better path,” you recoil to your dreams, especially, if in your head you are not simply a star but a hero. How many of us look at our hobbies and wish they were our profession? We dream of turning our knitting skills into a cool sweater-making gig or our bedroom monologues of Hamlet into a full-blown one-woman Shakespearean play! …. or is that just me? The point is that, while some hobbies don’t have to be a profession, it would be nice to feel like your profession brought you as much joy as a hobby. What is so great about watching McLaughlin’s Ryder is that he shows our dreams make us not only feel successful but like we are good. Yet, do we really need a dream come true to make those sentiments feel real within us?
