You get the sense as “Destroy All Girls” wears on that it isn’t the spins or slides that impress Alex (Ani Mesa-Perez) as she finds herself amongst a collection of skaters as much as the freedom of movement they have, often finding herself nearly clipped on one side or another as she tries to film them. It’s a strange place to take refuge not only for the obvious hazards of being toppled over on a regular basis in the middle of the action, but she has a brother Gabriel (Gil Perez-Abraham) back home who is paralyzed from wheeling down the wrong road. Still, she has made herself useful to a group that would like to score an endorsement deal to live up to their collective name “Prospers” on the same DV camera she used to film him doing tricks, at once putting a distance between herself and him when it takes her mind off of his present state but keeping him close when it’s not far removed from the good times they had.
Like Erin Vassilopoulos’ striking debut “Superior,” her follow-up feels like a discovery in a figurative sense, but also a literal one when it unspools like lost reels from the ‘90s, conspicuously captured on the most tactile of film stock and feels as if it were the fever dream of someone who read Big Brother and Thrasher back in the day. Incidentally, there are also a few magazine covers featuring figure skaters that can be seen pinned to on Alex’s bedroom wall in a brief glimpse of the humble apartment in New Jersey she shares with her brother and mother (Florencia Lozano) and stepfather (Alfredo Narciso), an idea that’s never really expanded upon but likely a dream considered too big to pursue herself, instead getting some hand-me-down roller blades from her brother for the two to skate together before the accident. She’s set to go to college, something that alone would probably be an anomaly for her family given how enthusiastic Gabriel is that she’s leaving the nest, but his accident abruptly ends any thought of the future for both and she decides to stick around to take care of him, working at a local grocery store and hanging with burnouts out back that Gabriel worries she’ll become herself.
Alex confesses to Cameron (Dominic Bruce), one of the “Prospers” that notices her camera she totes around, that she rarely crosses the bridge into New York upon meeting him when she’s initially invited to film, but she actually goes a step further than joining the group on the Lower East Side and decides not to come home at all one night, clearly overwhelmed by an unforgiving family dynamic where her mother’s work leaves her largely in charge of taking care of Alex. A familiar road is ahead when Alex gets on the skaters’ rickety old repurposed school bus, potentially headed as far away as California should they find success, and she has to decide if she ever wants to look back as her family leaves worried voicemails, yet Vassilopoulos delivers quite the ride, in part because the director clearly surrounds Alex with actual skaters who are regularly pulling off impressive stunts and a genuine transgressive streak ensures the energy never flags. Small, enlivening details such as Alex stopping at a drugstore to buy underwear when this whole adventure was never planned and an eventual consummation of her relationship with Cameron involving red nails like her mother’s, suggesting that she has to beware of falling into the same traps no matter where she is, feel fully fleshed out, extending the film’s commitment to authenticity to the real emotions it elicits.
While the stakes can seem relatively low when there is never any bigger obstacle in the film Alex faces than what she feels her obligations actually are, even without skates on, it feels as if the world is shifting beneath her feet and after starring with her twin sister Alessandra in “Superior,” Mesa-Perez ably carries the character study on her own, continually intriguing when she never lets anyone know anyone around exactly what she’s thinking as she deploys a crooked grin to put a better face on her situation than it actually is or try to hide her skepticism amongst a group of unruly boys pushing their fate at every turn. In a film where the laws of gravity are constantly challenged, the foundation that Vassilopoulos and crew lay that keeps things low to the ground ultimately propels it towards rare air.
“Destroy All Girls” will screen again at the Locarno Film Festival on August 10th at 3 pm at L’Altra Sala and August 11th at PalaCinema 2.