Skate Kitchen casts a tender gaze on Camille, a Long Island teen who travels to NYC in pursuit of her passion for skateboarding, and out of a need to escape the confines of a domestic life shared with an overprotective mother. With a Hal Hartley-esque sensitivity to shifts between suburban and city space, and the problems encountered by young adults in their love lives and friendships, Crystal Moselle’s narrative debut clearly benefits from her closeness to the real-life all-girl Lower East Side based skate crew after whom her film is named and from whom she draws her cast.
 
Newcomer Rachelle Vinberg plays Camille, and Jaden Smith interprets the love interest of this film. Placing women first, capturing intimate conversations about periods, as well as party scenes shot in Bushwick, and kickflips in the city, it’s no surprise that fledgling romance becomes a source of tension in this film, threatening the Skate Kitchen’s feminist sense of solidarity.
 
Following her Sundance Grand Prize-winning documentary hit The Wolfpack (2015), Crystal Moselle’s new work is charismatic, sun drenched and seductive, perfectly paired with a soundtrack featuring Clairo, Princess Nokia, and Kendrick Lamar.