Minding the Gap
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 17, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
90
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyOct 1, 2018
While this is an autobiographical story about a young aspiring filmmaker and his skateboarding crew, it also speaks volumes about contemporary rust-belt USA, masculinity and abuse, weaving its themes and characters around scenes of the boys sailing through the near-empty streets. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 28, 2018
Minding the Gap is an exceptionally reflective examination of the 29-year-old filmmaker’s life, and surroundings, and it works because the movie concerns so much more. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 18, 2018
The skateboarding and camaraderie are contrapuntal notes, liberating flurries of motion in a powerful saga of kids who were — and in some cases still are — miserably stuck in place. Read full review
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 18, 2018
Minding the Gap is a personal documentary of the highest sort, in which the film’s necessity to the filmmaker—and its obstacles, its resistances, its emotional and moral demands on him—are part of its very existence. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 17, 2018
Its easygoing intimacy is what puts it over the top. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 16, 2018
Minding the Gap is an essay that never feels like an essay, an intelligent and compassionate grappling with some of the most painful issues presently haunting the body politic: toxic masculinity and domestic violence, economic depression and a deep, existential despair. But Liu doesn’t contrive a simplistic thesis on Middle American misery to suit himself and his friends. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 16, 2018
Minding the Gap is more than a celebration of skateboarding as a sport and a subculture. With infinite sensitivity, Mr. Liu delves into some of the most painful and intimate details of his friends’ lives and his own, and then layers his observations into a rich, devastating essay on race, class and manhood in 21st-century America. Read full review
95
The AtlanticSophie GilbertAug 21, 2018
Liu’s intimacy with his subjects becomes contagious, to the point where their small victories are thrilling and their failures feel devastating. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 16, 2018
It’s heartbreaking, raw, and true. But it never veers into exploitation or becomes oppressively maudlin. Read full review
91
The Film StageJohn FinkJul 13, 2018
A tour de force of documentary filmmaking, Minding the Gap is a lively, often beautifully shot film about a pit of hopelessness–from dead-end jobs to drunken arguments to bad decisions. This is modern day John Cassavetes with tattoos and punk music. Read full review
90
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsAug 23, 2018
In a world full of images—full of people recording themselves and their friends doing dumb shit, or documenting attractive versions of themselves—Bing’s movie stands out for the complexity of its integrity, and its ability to reveal his own experiences empathically. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 21, 2018
It exists because it’s the movie Liu was born to make, the one he had to get off his chest before he could move on in his filmmaking career. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 15, 2018
Liu creates an unforgettable film experience that will knock the wind out of you. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDan FienbergJul 13, 2018
Minding the Gap starts out as one story, suggesting one set of character arcs, and then flows in unexpected directions and underlines new sets of themes, without ever feeling haphazard or ill-considered. Read full review
90
Village VoiceBilge EbiriJul 13, 2018
The film is filled with lengthy, sensuous skateboarding scenes, which feel meditative, therapeutic; we sense that these kids skated not because it was fun, but because it helped them to survive. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 31, 2018
The editing is brilliant, as we jump back in forth in time, seeing these three as kids and then as young men, marveling at their skateboard moves and smiling at their rebellious spirit, and wondering if there’s any hope for any of them given all they’ve been through in their young lives. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 24, 2018
Minding the Gap honors the pain of these young men’s lives so fully, it earns the right to conclude with the equivalent of a perfectly executed flip—audacious, improbable, and liberating. Read full review
87
TheWrapRobert AbeleAug 16, 2018
Minding the Gap, which is brilliantly edited by Liu and Joshua Altman, has a floating, grab-bag style that collapses the time frame into a kind of momentum-driven arc, but while the pieces are often bite-sized, and not always delineated by a year or person’s age, the collage has a distinctive chronological feel. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiAug 15, 2018
It generates a sense of personal immediacy that elevates Minding The Gap above the confines of mere portraiture; his presence facilitates (and sometimes hinders) honest admissions from his subjects. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 13, 2018
Combining first-rate skate video footage with a range of confessional moments, Minding the Gap is a warmhearted look at the difficulties of reckoning with the past while attempting to escape its clutches. Read full review
80
CineVueAdam LowesMar 21, 2019
Chronicling the lives of himself and two friends from teenage years to young adulthood, director Bing Liu has crafted a rich coming-of-age odyssey which is, in turn, illuminating, sobering and ultimately uplifting. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisMar 18, 2019
Its skating sequences are impressive, but it’s the intimate examinations of fracturing friendships and emerging adulthood that make Minding The Gap surprisingly resonant. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteAug 15, 2018
There’s something inexplicably soothing about the wide shots of the boys rolling along, spiraling down the levels of a parking garage or swerving around city streets at sunset. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 14, 2019
Minding the Gap is a film of skill, pathos and humor, not the deepest movie up for an Best Documentary Oscar this year, but certainly the most approachable. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 14, 2018
Zack and Keire's stunts are action scenes that are imbued with the gravity of the participants' youth, revelry, and need to prove themselves. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 21, 2019
It’s tough stuff, though the skateboarding interludes, full of low-gliding camerawork and Jackass-like gallows camaraderie, go a long way towards leavening the gloom. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 20, 2019
This is a fluent, watchable piece of work, though not quite as lucid as it might have been. A poignant tribute, at any rate, to the lost innocence of skateboarding. Read full review
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