Jonathan Romney 

All This Mayhem review – dark side of skateboarding

Eddie Martin's documentary reveals the drug-fuelled hubris that brought the Pappas brothers down, writes Jonathan Romney
  
  


Even if you know nothing about skateboarding, and need to have it explained exactly what a 900 is – you know, a 900 – Eddie Martin's documentary is revealing stuff, once you get past some of the more repetitive ramp action. It's about brothers Tas and Ben Pappas, working-class boys (or self-styled "bogans") from Melbourne, who in the 90s took skaterdom by storm, becoming world champions. Drugs, hubris and Tas's take-all-comers belligerence eventually put a stop to their ascent, and their lives turned sour before turning tragic. With scrappy archive footage conjuring up a heady mix of exuberance and squalor, All This Mayhem is pretty compelling once it gets into the darker areas of the boys' lives. Some of the best material is in the interviews with Tas, spotlighting his thorny but appealing force of character – which can be especially entertaining when he's inveighing against the commercialisation of his beloved sport, as embodied by mainstream-friendly star Tony Hawk.

 

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