A surprisingly moving look at skateboarding legend Tony Hawk that finds a great amount of weight in places a lot of documentaries overlook.

It's not that Hawk's constantly innovating decades long career isn't filled with drama outside the halfpipe, it's that director Sam Jones understands that people have seen that sort of arc before. Person fights their way to the top, they become too famous too fast, they have broken relationships, they find redemption in unlikely places, etc. etc. That can all be found in Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off, but there's a much more poignant and refreshing story that provides the focal point here.

Jones doesn't back down from the personal details, but he's far more invested in the psychology that drives Hawk and many of his contemporaries. Hawk isn't above criticizing himself, and the wealth of great interview subjects here aren't backing down from either praise or pointed condemnation. It's long and sometimes repetitive, but the latter aspect serves a purpose (playing into one of the most uncomfortable opening scenes I've ever seen in a documentary) and the former is tough to work around when there's so much good material to choose from.

Definitely enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to, and it's absolutely not the puff profile piece I feared it would be. Props to Hawk and everyone involved for being willing to go to some pretty dark and introspective places. Lots of great stuff in here about charges of nepotism against Hawk's dad, the impossible pursuit of perfection, and just how dangerous it can be to combine past greatness with nostalgia.