Minding the Gap

Not the kind of skating documentary that lives from sick tricks and cool shots (although it has the latter in spades). The skating is merely an entry-point into an exploration of deeper and very difficult themes, told through seamlessly edited footage collected over many years. A truly impressive debut feature.

It's such a great film that I watched it two nights in a row! It becomes so much more than a documentary about a subculture and a community - an intimate and highly affecting story about growing up in which the long-spanning chronicle of the intertwined pasts and fates of these three troubled young men who found much-needed solace in skateboarding is turned into drama of the highest order. What an astonishingly accomplished debut!

A movie about truly fascinating people, complicated and full of character, but so recognizable in any friend group. The film explores the full range of perspectives involved in cycles of abuse without being maudlin, and yet one of the saddest parts is watching young adults struggle to hang onto their passion in an alienating society. It's also one of the best shot and edited documentaries I can recall, both stirring in the emotional moments and kinetic in the skateboarding scenes.

Someone else aptly said they went into this expecting Hoop Dreams for skateboarding and got it for abusive homes instead. A deeply personal look from Bing on his childhood home, friends, and masculinity. Zack is a TPOS. Keire was an inspiration. Fav scene: interviewing Zack when he returns from Denver and seeing the look on his face as he avoids the camera and makes projecting insecure comments. You hope that there's a sense of self-realization in there, but that's not always the case in life.

Beautiful and heartbreaking and so deeply personal.

The story told here by Bing is clearly a very personal one, but the notion of escapism as a safe harbour from troubled experiences is one that applies on a universal level. In this regard, this is a competently shot and well put together portrait featuring testimonies that beautifully capture both the pain and hopes shared by its central characters.

Really impressive and heartfelt documentary about broken people trying to get through.

Starts as a powerful and authentic American portrait, then changes into an emotional film about fathers and sons, domestic violence and closure, which is a more familiar and less interesting ground, but well-done nonetheless.

Bing Liu's MINDING THE GAP is an intensely intimate documentary examining the racial and economic divide in America through the lens of three young skate punks, all with similarly troubled upbringings but wildly disparate journeys into adulthood. I get the feeling that Liu went into this project intending to make a film about escapism, but ended up with a heart-wrenching chronicle of pain: his community's and his own.

Skater kids become deadbeat dads. Who gives a fuck?

Bing Liu certainly had a plethora of footage from filming his friends as they skated, grew up, and lived their lives. Then he stumbles upon a real story that needed to be told. As everything unfolds it is both heartwarming and heart breaking, with each of the three boys struggling in their own ways. Fathers, sons, expectations, domestic abuse, and failure are all wrapped up in a seeming simple documentary. Beautifully done.

Beautifully constructed and edited documentary would be a triumph on its technical merits, but as both and objective and subjective observer, Liu proves an empathetic, masterful film-maker, teasing out searing insights from his friends and family (without ever feeling exploitative) and crafting an insightful, comprehensive portrait of the domestic life of his community, while functioning as a universally relatable statement on the nature of modern masculinity, fatherhood etc. Simply superb.

Marries my love of skateboarding with my love of good film. I put this off for a while expecting it to disappoint on either of both of those dimensions, but it did not. More crucially, it's one of the better examinations of how domestic violence propagates through communities like a virus, with plenty of heartbreak and hope.

Amazing, really sneaks up on you.

Personal, heartfelt, sad, and beautiful. In many ways feels like a documentary counterpart to mid90s.

Broken lives laid bare, with varying degrees of detail, & no proper resolution. There's a moment where filmmaker Bing Liu interviews his mother and things get emotional; he's opening old wounds, and his mother doesn't understand; he says: "Well, the reason why I wanted to make this film..." - and then he trails off, and we never find out. By the end, it's not clear what Liu's intent was, what hope there is for the future, or even how close these three friends are anymore.

A beautiful and sad story about coming of age, a declining America, and cinema's power of healing. Bing constructs an interwoven story of memories and friendship as he chronicles his skater friends' traumas and their pains of growth. Skating not only helps his friends survive in this cruel world, but also helps us bear the pain of the story, as Bing walks us through the beauty of skating. Extra respect-worthy due to is amateur spirit.

Enjoyed the skateboarding scenes but couldn't get inspired by skater boys being losers later in life because they only really spent time skateboarding. There were a few heartfelt moments but it just didn't come together or age well for me over the few days after I watched it.

This is a bit of a rough watch, but the authentic exposure and the young director's expert lean into the grittiness makes this an important viewing.

You don't see where it is going to take you at first, but the filmmaker did a great job weaving his friends' stories together with his own, though it is in a heartbreaking way.

It's interesting how the subjects who don't allow the "it was acceptable at the time" excuse are the ones dealing better with their past experiences. History has always overlooked decent people when the weak characters who "didn't know any better" fit better with its current narrative.

As personal as movies get - really heartfelt stuff.

This device may cure heartache...but it doesn't dry these tears! BWAAHHHHHH!!!

America is such a harsh place.

Centered on only three subjects, but evocative of the plight of an entire generation, and teeming with raw humanity. This is cinema.

A hugely personal slice of life. I wanted these people to solve their problems, but their problems are too deep-seated to solve. It's a tough watch, giving off a reality tv vibe, but it's effective enough.