This Ain't California is a celebration of the lust for life, a contemporary documentary trip into the world of roller boarding in the German Democratic Republic.
The big question is how much is fact and how much fabrication – Persiel’s film entertains, but the nagging sense that it’s mostly a ruse limits true engagement.
A fun and frothy mock-doc with a message buried in its axle.
Fooling an audience should surely be done with honest and open mischief, not with sheepish postscripts from film-makers hoping we might have been hornswoggled.
There are some intriguing concepts here, but they are muddied by the needless flights of undeclared fancy, coming close to bad faith.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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