Wassup Rockers

Ten years after KIDS, Larry Clark hits the mean streets of South Central and Beverly Hills for his latest feature WASSUP ROCKERS, introducing a group of Latino teenagers who live to skate and skate to survive in their brutal neighborhood. WASSUP ROCKERS tells a fictional story drawn from the actual experiences of real teenage boys —first-time actors recruited to play themselves. Jonathan and his best friends and band mates look more like skate rats than the drug-peddling gangstas that inhabit their neighborhood. In fact they are hardcore punks – with tight pants, small T-shirts and long greasy hair — imagine the Ramones if they’d grown up Hispanic in South Central Los Angeles instead of the Bronx. The journey begins through the eyes of 14-year-old Jonathan: his everyday life seems to consist of the South Central familiars: gang bangers, drive-by shootings, the blood of his friend Creeper dripping down a graffiti-covered brick wall. But unlike most of the boys in this neighborhood, Jonathan isn’t interested in guns or drugs. He and his friends just want to skate. They borrow a car, attempting to drive to Beverly Hills, but they get pulled over by cops who confiscate the vehicle because they’re all underage. Undeterred, the boys take two buses and skate the rest of the way to Beverly Hills High.After arriving, the boys skate the famous “Nine Stairs,” and soon find themselves propositioned by a pair of young Beverly Hills beauties, who invite them back to their parents’ lavish hilltop mansion. But before they can leave the school, a Beverly Hills cop harasses the boys, making it clear that they don’t belong. The boys narrowly escape — but not before one of them is handcuffed and arrested. Wandering the affluent Beverly Hills streets, the kids hop fences and trek through backyards with perfect lawns. Jonathan then leads them to the home of the girls they met earlier. While the rest of the kids skate in the front yard and lounge by the pool, Jonathan and Kico make out with their new friends. This idyllic exchange between kids from opposite worlds is violently interrupted when the girls’ brother and friends arrive, hurling fists and insults as the skaters run for their lives. They jump more fences and briefly visit a pool party frequented by rich trendsetters. Here the boys find unexpected acceptance in the company of the predominantly white hipster revelers, who know a hot look when they see one. But another setback occurs when which again sends the boys fleeing.On the run again, they enter the back yard of a gun-toting Hollywood actor, who shoots one of the boys as he tries to retreat over a wall. The others hear the shots and flee. Devastated, they grieve the loss of yet another slain compatriot. They are ready to find their way back home to the ghetto — where at least they know the rules of the game. When the boys make it back to South Central they cross paths with two gangsters who greet them with the familiar taunt “wassup rockers?” as they fire gunshots into the air. Life, ironically, is back to normal.