A few nights ago, I found myself craving some kind of 90s extreme sports nostalgia. Summer is here. The weather is hot, and people are spending more time outdoors. Where I live, roads that are normally closed for winter are fully open. I felt like I needed a movie that was not only lighthearted, but that would reaffirm that everything is just really cool. So I rewatched Brink.
Sure enough, within the first five minutes, I was greeted by a late 90s pop-punk soundtrack, blue skies, Venice Beach, and a skate park full of colorful ramps and graffiti.
Almost immediately, I thought I want to be more like Brink. He is the epitome of good vibes. People in the movie make sarcastic comments, and they roll off his shoulders as if nothing happened. How does he do that, I thought to myself. How can I do that?
Today I’m gonna skate
Brink and his friends are all about skating. Not only that, they skate for fun. They’re Soul Skaters, the simple yet powerful mantra that encompasses the message of the movie: why do you do the things that you do? And how do those choices affect who you are? For this crew, skating for fun is the glue that binds them together.
Shortly into the movie, Brink finds himself faced with a dilemma. His family is hurting financially ever since his dad, a construction foreman, was injured on the job. Brink, being the kind soul he is, explores the possibility of skating for money by joining his rivals, Team Xblades. This would mean turning his back on Soul Skating. In Brink’s mind, this means breaking the promise he made to his closest friends.
But his dad isn’t having it. He outright refuses to let him skate for money. Why? Because it’s the thing that got him suspended on the first day of school. So instead, as a way to help his son learn the value of a hard day’s work, he gets him an after-school job.
I was surprised at how quickly the fun, upbeat, and lighthearted Brink turned down a path where his choices truly weighed him down. In some ways, it’s almost hard to watch. You can see that he doesn’t want to lie to his friends, so he takes on the burden of trying to do everything. He skates for money with Team Xblades after school, then he skates with his friends in the early evening, and he still manages to hold down the part time job that his dad helped him get.
Dude, chornage!
At some point during this whole segment, I found myself wishing for Brink to snap out of it. I couldn’t wait for him to return to his old self again. I was suprised that the movie garnered such a reaction in me. Ultimately, this signified to me that this is more than just a skate movie. Brink’s dilemma sits at the very heart of the story. We watch him make some hard decisions. Deep down, he believes he’s doing the right thing, but he’s plagued by how much his choices affect those around him, particularly his friends.
When I watched this movie as a kid, I didn’t think much about Brink’s dilemma. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what he was going through. It was more that I just wanted to watch a movie where people did rail grinds and inverts on a halfpipe. Yet as an adult, seeing someone like Brink struggle so much with his decisions is almost heartbreaking. I wanted to reach into the screen, grab him by his shoulders, and tell him, It’s gonna be okay!
And of course, by the end of the movie, it is ok. Although Brink has to go through the experience of mending his relationship with his friends, he eventually shows them who he truly is. He’s someone who not only cares, but he shows up for them when they need him most.
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