Minding the Gap
A deeply intimate skateboarding documentary follows three friends as their shared escape opens onto trauma, class, and the difficult work of becoming better men.
Overview
A poignant exploration of friendship and the struggles of youth in a world of skateboarding.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- intimate
- devastating
- reflective
- reflective viewing
- documentary night
What critics said
Critics broadly regard Bing Liu's debut as a poignant, formally accomplished portrait of young American lives whose intimate focus expands into profound social analysis.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Bing Liu's participation and interviews connect the friends' lives to race, class, masculinity, and domestic trauma.
The skateboarders' relationships and experiences of violence motivate sustained reflection on modern manhood.
Skateboarding initially bonds the friends and offers an escape from turbulent upbringings in a low-opportunity community.
More than a decade of footage traces the friends from adolescence into early adulthood.
Films like Minding the Gap, and why
The Work
intimate coming-of-age documentary examining friendship, masculinity, class, and domestic trauma
American Honey
observational documentary portrait of young adults navigating family dysfunction and economic hardship
Dick Johnson Is Dead
poignant nonfiction exploration of adolescence, memory, and troubled family relationships
Movie Details
- Director
- Bing Liu
- Release Date
- 2018-08-17
- Runtime
- 93 min
- Rating
- 7.7 / 10 (205)
Cast
- Keire Johnson
- Zack Mulligan
- Bing Liu
- Nina Bowgren
- Mengyue Bolen
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Hulu
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Minding the Gap about?
- A deeply intimate skateboarding documentary follows three friends as their shared escape opens onto trauma, class, and the difficult work of becoming better men.
- What is Minding the Gap like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Minding the Gap as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Minding the Gap violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Minding the Gap as moderate.
- What did critics think of Minding the Gap?
- Critics broadly regard Bing Liu's debut as a poignant, formally accomplished portrait of young American lives whose intimate focus expands into profound social analysis.
- Which films are like Minding the Gap?
- Films with a similar feel include The Work, American Honey, and Dick Johnson Is Dead.
- How long is Minding the Gap?
- Minding the Gap runs 93 minutes.
- Where can I watch Minding the Gap?
- In United States, Minding the Gap streams on Hulu.
