“Skateland,” the debut feature film from writer/director Anthony Burns, has been earning a small amount of buzz based on its festival dates this year at Sundance (where it earned a Grand Jury prize nomination) and SXSW. At the latter festival, we heard some good things about the film, with feedback coming to us that it had a familiar vibe to David Gordon Green’s early work.
Collider has come across the trailer which is not as exciting as that buzz would suggest, but we’re gonna chalk it up to simple marketing. Led by New Order’s “Age Of Consent” and playing the obvious notes of your standard “indie drama,” the film stars up-and-comers Ashley Greene (“Twilight: New Moon”) and Shiloh Fernandez (recently cast in Catherine Hardwicke’s “The Girl With The Red Riding Hood”) in the ’80s set drama as they wrestle with coming of age and the closing of their local hangout. The trailer feels not unlike Richard Linklater’s “Dazed & Confused.” Full synopsis below:
Skateland explores the rupture of charismatic Ritchie Wheeler, brother and sister Brent and Michelle Burkham, and wise-cracking lady-killer Kenny Crawford’s seemingly complacent existence as they struggle with the collapse of their tumultuous home lives, the alcohol-induced idling of reckless adolescence, and the wane of their hometown hangout, the local roller rink. A story syncopated with moments of violent turbulence, of heartbreak and of new beginnings, Skateland immerses the audience in the brutal, but beautiful vastness of East Texas blue skies and the emotional claustrophobia of the bible belt. Enveloped by the brooding melodies and incendiary rock riffs of the early 80’s, Skateland is a place where aging values wrestle with contemporary pop culture to create a paradoxical balance between old and new.
The film doesn’t have a distributor lined up, but it continues to do the festival circuit playing at SIFF over the weekend and the Opening Night of Sled Island Music & Arts Festival in Calgary, Alberta next month. But given the talent attached, it should be picked up soon.
