This documentary was nominated for an Oscar this year. It should have won.
Chinese-American Bing Liu grew up near Chicago in the financially depressed (and deeply racist) city of Rockford. As a teen he was obsessed with skateboarding and in his 20s decided to immortalise the scene, homing in on charmer Zack Mulligan and the goofily shy Keire Johnson. But this isn’t a film about skateboarding. Bing gets his subjects to say stuff that Zack, in particular, may come to regret.
All three men have a need for speed, and shots of Keire and Zack whooshing through the streets are effortlessly romantic. It’s when Zack and his girlfriend Nina start to have relationship problems that Minding the Gap offers its first ugly jolt. Nina is the mother of Zack’s baby boy and, according to him, is prone to bursts of hysteria. He and a pal giggle as they discuss Nina’s mood swings (in a phone video we hear her screaming her head off). Later, while Zack’s in the loo, Bing talks to Nina. Let’s just say she’s got the scars to prove things are more complicated than they seem.
This is a movie about what people are prepared to swallow when they’re thirsty for love. The lies are fascinating (Zack tells us, chirpily, that he’s drinking less right before getting hammered). And none of the tears feel rehearsed. Bing’s self-effacing mother is the kind of “character” you rarely see in movies or read about in books. You could say that what all the interviewees have in common is experience of domestic abuse. It would be truer to say that they all trust Bing.
This is his first film. Let’s hope it’s not his last.
The biggest films arriving in 2019
