It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The bones brigade was a slew of skateboarding dudes from America that took the world by storm in the eighties and then transcended into legends based on their radical moves. I kind of wish this movie was put in a different light though, the camera panning during the interviews is cheesy, and all the damn whining nearly drove me to insanity. It's like in the Metallica doc when Dave Mustane get's brought in by a shrink to whine to Lars Ulrich about being kicked out of Metallica twenty years prior. C'mon dave you only went on to form an even more awesome band MEGADETH, quit cryin! But he won't and neither do these guys. Hawk laments being such a "trickster" and playing second fiddle to Hosoi, Rodney Mullen just plain cry's the whole time and the rest of the team spit out sob stories while a roving camera creeps around them like a shark circling it's prey. Vice started a series years back called "Epicly later'ed" which is far and away better then watching this whole flick, people talk about their experiences and maybe sometimes someone cry's, but this flick really sent me packing due to all the waterworks. Enough. Rodney Mullen who's probably one of the most influential street skaters ever just cry's all the damn time, i've seen other little doc's about him and he's very emotional about his years skating and how he got there. This one could have been good i just hated the approach, it would have been better to interview these guys separately at their homes or at a diner, someplace other then a highly lit set with ten cameras. It just didn't feel organic to me. But that's the way a lot of Stacy Peralta's stuff is, it's either way to artsy (pick a bones brigade flick) or it's well crafted (dogtown). It's weird when you think of these guys being so cool and crazy just to see them wash up on the shores of shrugtown.

The Bones Brigade, we've heard/read/seen so much about them, know their influence and admire their contributions to the sport of skateboarding, so it's about time for a recap.Once again Stacy Peralta tasked himself with chronicling the history of this (his) part of skateboarding history. And already it becomes tricky - because when the former coach of a team releases a documentary about it, one must be critical separating truth from pure euphoria. And this film has both.Besides the typical "it was so special"-, "we were the best"- and "we changed everything"-claims which appear to be mandatory for these kind of documentaries, there are also very critical and enlightening statements that broaden the insight. At some points Stacy even dares to contradict himself by crossing his statements with contrary ones of other skaters. This adds a lot to the credibility of this film as it shows that Peralta's vision and understanding of this story may not necessarily comply with others.But the real gem of this documentary is Rodney Mullen. Here we have a sophisticated skater who does not only understand how to push the boundaries of the sport but also how to put it into poetic language to describe it. His comparisons and metaphors citing Beethoven and Franz Kafka shine so bright that the following comments from other interviewees just fade. He emits honesty, passion and eloquence which a lot of others don't. Words like his are hardly ever found in your typical average sports documentary.What is again great about a Peralta documentary is that he has obviously done his homework, providing tons of historic material and weaving it together in a manner that is easy to digest and pick up. The music is good, the atmosphere is very positive and information value is definitely higher compared to other documentaries that try to chronicle the history (of parts of it) of a sport.But at several points the film just drifts away into over-self-glorification adding neither emotion nor information. But in the end it is very recommendable chronicle not to be missed, especially from skateboard fans. Who ever wants to see the "other side" of skateboarding from that time period is well advised to see "Rising Son - The legend of skateboarder Christian Hosoi" - it has much lower production values but explains pretty well that skateboarding was more than just boyscouts having fun.

I've literally watched Stacy Peralta's Bones Brigade: An Autobiography half a dozen times in the past two weeks. Not only because it provides a view into the careers of those now well- known skaters who got their jump by being Bones Brigade members, but also it gives insight into two of my favourite skaters of all-time, Rodney Mullen and Lance Mountain. Both Mountain and Mullen have always been different from the others, and I've forever been intrigued by them both from the time I first started skating in the mid-90s; this film focuses on most of the original Bones Brigade including Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Tommy Guerrero, and Steve Caballero, but I find the focus on my two favourites extremely touching. Mullen is an extremely intelligent, well-spoken individual who puts thought behind his words, and might often strike some as being strange, but judging by his upbringing he spent life much as I did at a young age for a very long time- by himself. On the other hand, Mountain has always been the everyman of skating, and Mike Vallely comments in the film how it was Lance who finally made skateboarding accessible to him (and I'm sure many others) who watched the guys like Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero doing extremely progressive stuff; Lance has always been a great skater, but he embodies the passion, the love of what skating is, and it shows in how he skates. The look at these two gets very emotional. I found there were times I teared up right along with Lance, as he talks about what it meant to be a part of something so amazing, and how much it hurt to see it all sort of come to an end.I can't recommend this enough to people who love skateboarding. Unfortunately, due to knee injuries I was unable to skate much longer than past the age of 17, but I have always loved the sport. Even after stopping, I continued to film my friends skating; I still waxed the curbs, still went to the skate park until we had no more light to see our hands in front of our faces. I will always love the sport because it meant a lot to me. Like many of the Bones Brigade members, I found some solace in skateboarding, and many great lasting friendships I came into because of it. So to hear several of my skateboarding idols talk of it in the same terms I come to see it is incredible. Absolutely a 10 out of 10 stars for not only being informative and emotional, but it also had some really amazing footage I had never seen before from very early days of the Bones Brigade, and it also had some solid music throughout.

I grew up in the 80s worshiping some of the pro skaters like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Christian Hosoi. To finally have a documentary that chronicles the entire progression of skateboarding in the late 70s and through the 80s is something that has been missing up until now. I cannot tell you how compelling this documentary is. It's inspirational, touching, educational, and just downright interesting. For anyone who like skateboarding, this is a must-see. For anyone who's even mildly curious about the history of skateboarding, I would highly recommend watching this. The documentary focuses on Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, and Lance Mountain, along with their Bones Brigade coach/mentor/father-figure, Stacey Peralta. It chronicles the evolution of skateboarding in the late 70s and through the 80s, the development of tricks such as the ollie, the caballerial, the mctwist, the general climate and lack of acceptance of skateboarding, the transition from pool skating to other types of vert and street skating, the personal struggles some of the Bones Brigade team members went through, and the inspirational triumphs this group of young teens experienced in the 80s.