CAPSULE: All This Mayhem (2014, Dir. Eddie Martin)

Skaters. Bogans. Vice. Going on content, I can't say I was expecting much our of All This Mayhem. Then, not being a fan of Formula 1 racing, I wasn't expecting too much out of Senna, either and I ended up enjoying that immensely.

I don't pull out the comparison to Asif Kapadia's award winning documentary for nothing; All This Mayhem has been tagged with the old "from the makers of" chestnut, even though "the makers" in this instance constitute the editor, a producer and a production assistant. Still, we shouldn't let that get in the way of a good marketing ploy, especially if it gets people in front of this film because regardless of the team involved, All This Mayhem does exactly what Senna did before it; it manages to pare back its bong-toking, manly man-context to reveal Shakespeare level human tragedy.

The subjects this time around are Ben and Tas Pappas, two brothers from St Albans who climbed to the heights of the US pro skating tour then crashed about as hard as two brothers from St Albans can crash. The brothers, at a very young age, left their humble beginnings at the Prahran skate park for the west coast of the United States, where they fell in with their heroes from the scene's early video celebrities and eventually climbed to be the world's best.

All This Mayhem is a solidly put together doco. Director, Eddie Martin, and editor, Chris King (yes from Senna, Exit Through the Gift Shop and the recent Stone Roses doco) work judiciously with the brothers' stories, keeping a strong grip on their meteoric rise to challenge clean cut Pro Tour poster boy Tony Hawk and their drug and tragedy fuelled demise. Martin and his interviewees may glorify the fucked-upedness of the early 2000's west coast skate scene a little heavily (and I'm sure those who were into it all back then will be in their element) but never to the point that they lose sight of the devastating aftermath for these two kids who couldn't maintain their perspective amongst the cashed-up high life.

All This Mayhem is quite a ride. It goes places darker than most will anticipate when they enter the cinema, yet it is in that darkness that it finds the strength of character and humanity that helps it rise above its brogan pedigree. It's not on particularly wide release but make the effort. It is well worth hunting out.

★★★☆

Trailer: