I'm slightly older than Tony Hawk, and I have never once skateboarded. Why watch this Tony Hawk documentary (or any skateboarding one)? Because I like to watch documentaries about the cultures and subcultures that I'm not a part of, mostly to try to gain a better understanding of them and their adherents. In this very good one from The Duplass Brothers, we get an up-close and almost too-inside look at the cross-cultural and multi-generational skateboarding icon, Tony Hawk. From the earliest footage of youthful, skinny Tony becoming more and more obsessed with the sport as his mother and father express more or less unwavering support, all the way through his amazing pro career, and up until he has a nasty fall and concussion (just one of his nearly countless concussions over the period of nearly 45 years) at a reunion he organized with his skateboard friends and rivals, we see how his non-stop, can-do, never-say-die attitude about perfecting (and in many cases, inventing) his tricks makes him both unmatched in his field, as well as helping also to make him emotionally & psychologically stunted, costing him intimate relationships including with his own children, as he laments here more than once. Like all that he does, he's continuing to work on these things, with his understanding wife and youngest kids. I wish him good luck, especially with these latter goals, but he does need to get a grip before he winds up in permanent traction in the hospital!
Review of Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off
