SIFF's "Skateland" : Who said the 70's were easy?

Set in the early 1970's this story follows a boy named Teddy who is confronted by many bad events in an era of freedom, and easy going. The title of the movie refers to a roller rink where Teddy is a manager and has worked all 4 years of high school. unfortunately it goes out of business due to the rise of disco's and the club scene. this is just the beginning of his teenage drama's.

Teddy's closest friends are this brother and sister whom he is very close to their family as well. The sister, Michelle, is his closest girl that is a friend and becomes the apple of his eye throughout the movie. Her brother, Ritchie, is a washed up professional motorcycle rider with the smoothest mustache and most bad ass ride in town well... that's where Kenny comes into the movie. Kenny is a rich, blonde, lake house owning party boy who is like the cool kid with a brand new chevy camaro. It seems these two boys are the cream of the manly crop. Unfortunately his parents are dead, which I learned by talking to the director afterwords, so he has nothing but cash to keep him happy.

Teddy is thrown all sorts of curve balls as he is faced with death, rivals, girl problems, college, and the loss of Skateland. For a teenager fresh out of high school and in between college and the last 19 years of his life he can't decide what to do. to make things harder his choices are bombarded by conflict after conflict.

As Teddy is forced into unemployment his search for a new job just as good as Skateland fails. When he tries to relax and enjoy himself his friend Ritchie is hooking up with girls that belong to his rivals which in turn cause the death Ritchie after an intense chase after a party by the girls boyfriend. teddy survives the accident and is left horrified by the turn of events. Not knowing what to do with himself, whether to stay in town or go away to college, his world falls apart.

He goes for some R and R at a bar and see's his own mom with another man this soon follows the divorce and the falling apart of his family ties. As his little sister tries to make his mind up for him by applying to a bunch of colleges Teddy lashes back at saying he would rather stay instead of pursuing his future.

As Michelle and Teddy become romantically involved, Michelle makes the first move, she then is quickly thrown away from her pathway and goals as the death of her brother Ritchie forces her to rethink her life, so she runs away. It seems his world has fallen apart.

When it seems all Teddy can do is nothing he receives a lovely letter from the University of Houston where he is gratefully accepted along with a nice scholarship. He then goes to Michelle and says "we're going" as the two decide to go to college together following with a romantic closing kissing scene.

The movie covered media influence as MTV was first introduced in that time. So the shift to a teen-happy media induced world was about to come as MTV typically defines "cool." After the movie was over we talked to the director and Anthony Burns most impotently said "I chose this era because ti was when women were the strongest, this was after the civil right movement and I wanted every woman character to influence the audience." and theat every female was to glow and inspire. I gave this movie 4.7/5 stars.