Only the Young (2012) review

Mims and Tippet examine the lives of Christian skateboarding teens in the West Coast of the U.S.A., their hopes, their concerns for the future and their friendship with each other. As lovely as the images the directors get of Southern California, the insight into the teens' inner worlds is nothing more than cursory - they're hardly unique as individuals (sorry teens, as a teacher this is rather familiar ground for me), and even their supposed 'struggle' with their faith is more or less a side note. If the directors intend this to be something similar to the Up series by Michael Apted - following the same individuals over time and charting their progress - it could obtain some sort of deeper long-term impact, but as it stands it's a quick, poorly formed biography of youth in the process of self-discovery.