Dragonslayer Reviews
Like many good documentary filmmakers, Tristan Patterson is a talented eavesdropper who lets characters articulate overriding themes.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
In following this scattered character around, "Dragonslayer" director Tristan Patterson makes a very purposeful documentary about the pessimistic worldview of the nation's youth, and what that means for the future.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Los Angeles Times
Top CriticA youth culture backdropped by the crumbling edge of California is rendered with punk rock energy and grace.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
The portrait is dispiriting overall, inspiring little affection from viewers, but feels authentic and fair.
Despite a slew of skateboarding films in recent years, each one quite distinct, Patterson's pic arguably comes closest to channeling the culture's punk vibe and youthful abandon, albeit filtered through an outsider's aesthetic.
Patterson's one-of-a-kind hybrid captures a socio-historical moment with the kind of charged authenticity that only comes from a willingness to embrace contradictions: It's discursive and hypnotic, laconic and urgent.
Seamlessly dovetailing style and subject, "Dragonslayer," a poetic and affectionate portrait of the professional skateboarder Josh Sandoval, known as Skreech, vivifies a subculture of random hedonism and future myopia.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
With its propulsive punk-rock soundtrack and beautifully rough cinematography, Dragonslayer makes you care about this scrawny young man, skating to nowhere.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
For a tagalong doc, Dragonslayer is remarkably well shot, with a worn-in quality that belies its digital origins.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
