I just recently finished reading Shock Value by Jason Zinoman. (It's very good and if you're a fan of horror movies, you owe it to yourself to read it, as it's very in-depth.) In the book, Zinoman profiles several directors, such as Wes Craven and Brian De Palma, who were clearly taking real situations from their lives putting it on screen in a symbolic and allegorical fashion. This is an interesting way for creative people to exorcise their own demons. In contrast, I would like to see a moratorium on filmmakers who use film to tell their life stories. These self-indulgent movies often leave the viewer behind as the director gets too involved with nostalgia. Even though I don't have concrete evidence that this is what was occurring in Skateland, it certainly had that feel.

Skateland takes place in a small town in Texas in the early 1980s. Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez) works at "Skateland", the local roller rink. He is out of high school, but not in college, as he's happy working at the rink. He also likes going to parties thrown by his friend Kenny (Taylor Handley). Ritchie is delighted when one of his oldest friends, Brent Burkham (Heath Freeman), comes home from his life as a motor-cross racer. Brent and his sister, Michelle (Ashley Greene) go out with Ritchie and everything seems like old times again. But, then Ritchie's world begins to crumble. The announcement is made that Skateland has been sold and will be closing. Ritchie's parents (Brett Cullen and Melinda McGraw) announce that they are getting a divorce. No longer just his friend's little sister, Ritchie realizes that he's attracted to Michelle. A local bully named Tommy (James Hebert) thinks that Brent is after his girl and makes threats. Ritchie has a hard time dealing with all of these stressful changes.

And yet, I can't shake the feeling that the movie is meant to be a love-letter to the decade by Writer/Director Anthony Burns. This is one of those movies which I watch and think, "This must be based on someone's life, otherwise, where would these stories come from?" If this is based on Burns' life, experiences, and friends, then he should have done a better job of letting us in on things, as the movie is filled with underwritten characters and hackneyed ideas.

Ritchie is the quintessential nice guy who the girls love and guys respect. But, he's troubled in a brooding way, even before things start to go wrong. The loss of his job and the dissolution of his family weigh heavily on Ritchie and they are clearly supposed to represent the changing times. But, it all feels like overly-dramatic hokum and none of it feels genuine. The cast is filled with interchangeable characters (two of the females look just alike) and while we get the sense that everyone has a history together, it's never explored. Story arcs are very predictable and the ending is incredibly implausible and cheesy. The most interesting character in the movie is Ritchie's sister, Mary (Haley Ramm). She's a complex child, and I wish that the movie had been about her.

Skateland clearly doesn't understand the meaning of limbo on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The movie has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 22 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a touch of grain at times and no defects from the source material. Burns has gone for a verite look in some shots, and these can show some minor grain, but otherwise, the image is crisp. The colors look very good, most notably greens and reds, and the picture is never overly dark or light. The level of detail is good, and the depth in some shots in certainly above average. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.2 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are nicely detailed and deftly place off-screen sounds in the left or right channels. The surround sound effects at the parties and at Skateland work well. The in-film music also gets good treatment from the surround channels. There aren't many subwoofer effects present.

The lone extra on the Skateland Blu-ray Disc is fourteen DELETED SCENES which run about 34 minutes. As opposed to actual deleted scenes, some of these are alternate takes of scenes seen in the movie -- sometimes as many as three alternate takes of one scene. As a matter of fact, of the fourteen scenes here, only five fit the definition of "deleted scenes", as they offer footage not seen in the movie. This gives us a look at where Kenny works and Brent seeing an old friend, but there's nothing very interesting here.