Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Dragonslayer'
This week, the oddest DVD to appear on releases lists is:
“Dragonslayer”
When the daring young ragamuffins of Dogtown (a la Stacy Peralta’s portraits of California skate-punk culture) approach adulthood, their carefree endless summer just might portend a grim, aimless future like that of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval in “Dragonslayer” (due out on DVD Tuesday).
This gritty, rambling, laidback documentary from director Tristan Patterson charts the falling-down life in the throes of America’s economic downturn of sometime pro skateboarder Sandoval as he clings to the skater life even as he lugs along his 19-year-old girlfriend and toddler son and approaches middle age without a clue as to his or his family’s future.
A skinny, scruffy freeloader who hustles for money and free cigarettes and spends his days grinding with skater pals in abandoned Southern California swimming pools, Sandoval is a thoroughly unappealing, dim-witted and irksome counterculture figure that Patterson attempts to celebrate as some sort of iconic outsider, a sun-dappled skate-punk anti-hero.
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