Filmed in Rockford, Illinois, Minding The Gap is a documentary about three skateboarder mates growing up together and eventually growing apart
Two five star reviews in the same week a mere three weeks after the Oscars and I’m not even sorry.
Filmed in Rockford, Illinois - an absolutely nothing town, this is a documentary about 3 skater friends doing nothing but skating together, struggling to grow up together and eventually growing apart.
It’s directed by Bing Lui, one of the three friends who, rather fortuitously, decided to film pretty much every second of their lives.
What he has ended up with is an incredible piece of storytelling that take an hour and a half to sum up what it’s like being a young man in working class USA in 2019.
Inadvertently, by following the lives of him and his friends Zack and Keire through their disastrous relationships and struggles to become men, Minding The Gap tackles abuse, masculinity, addiction, expectation, racism and parental responsibility in a way that will really strike a chord with anyone watching.
No-one really has any hope here. Jobs are hard graft, money is tight, house are a tip and everyone has had a terrible time at some point - which is expertly teased out in the way only a best friend asking the questions can. The best anyone can really hope for here is not falling into the void and in places they come dangerously close.
Given this is a film about boys becoming men and masculinity, it’s interesting to note none of the boys have anything resembling good male role models and nearly all the male influence shown is horribly toxic.
We all have, at some point, had a group of friends that have acted like a surrogate family when our actual family is failing us. This film reminds us of how vital that network is and how lost most children are. Brilliant.
