Larry Clark continues to try to milk the Kids bandwagon and maintain an aura of hipness with this hybrid of documentary and fiction surrounding a group of Latino teens from South Central Los Angeles who dig skating and punk rock above all else. During the movie's first half, Clark merely observes them in their natural surroundings, but then they go on a pilgrimage to skate the staircase at Beverly Hills High, and the melodramatics start.
Caught in compromising positions with some rich white girls, the kids find themselves in enemy territory trying to make it back to the ghetto. Here is where things get really contrived, as our heroes have run-ins with a poorly acted police officer (Chris Neville), a racist gun-nut actor loosely based on Charlton Heston (David Livingston), a wacky aging nympho (Janice Dickinson), and a high-fashion party where a bunch of trendy twerps think the kids have a great new look (the irony of making fun of such people seems to have escaped Clark completely). The movie looks great, but there's not much to it.