Stream It Or Skip It: ‘North Hollywood’ on VOD, a Smart, Offbeat SoCal Skater-Bro Coming-of-Age Comedy

VOD release North Hollywood is the assured, pleasantly surprising debut feature of Mikey Alfred, who aims to capture SoCal skater-guy hangout culture within a classic, but offbeat coming-of-age story. Alfred was a producer on Jonah Hill’s similar, higher-profile skateboard-nostalgia picture Mid90s, so fans of that might find their interest piqued here. North Hollywood offers another surprising breakthrough in star Ryder McLaughlin, who comes off as an opposite-coast, lighter-weight version of Pete Davidson; he co-stars with Vince Vaughn and Booksmart supporting cast member Nico Hiraga. It seems destined to be overlooked in the glut of streaming releases, so here’s why it deserves to drum up a nice cult following.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Mike (Ryder McLaughlin) just graduated from high school but he doesn’t know diddly-flip. In the first scene of the movie, his dad (Vince Vaughn) busts his balls for not knowing to tuck the shower curtain into the tub when he showers. See, water gets all over the bathroom floor. This is basic knowledge. Simple physics. Vince Vaughn Dad is a lifelong construction worker and his ancestors did cement and stucco, and he can’t understand why his grown-ass son, who has a diploma and is an adult now, doesn’t know this already. On top of that, Mike wants to chase his dream of being a pro skateboarder, and he might as well tell his Vince Vaughn Dad that he wants a career training elephants to dance the watusi. To Vince Vaughn Dad, that is some stupid, impractical shit, and it ain’t gonna stand. The boy needs STRUCTURE. By the way, has Mike filled out his college applications yet? No? He’s gonna get to it? Yeah right.

This is all normal, delusional teenage transition-period stuff, of course. Don’t get the wrong impression here — Mike is a decent kid, softspoken, maybe a little too mealy-mouthed, but decent. He skates with his two best pals, Adolf (Aramis Hudson) and Jay (Nico Hiraga). They’ve known each other since grade school, and their matching Chuck Taylors with NORTH HOLLYWOOD Sharpie’d on the rubber mean they’re a skate crew. Should that be spelled with a “k”? Skate “krew”? No? OK, I won’t then. The three guys hang out and act stupid and skate and laugh like they damn well should, and Mike might finally talk up Rachel (Miranda Cosgrove), his crush since, like, forever. Nobody has much of a plan — Jay will go to college and Adolf will work construction for a bit — but don’t we tend to take all this what’re-you-gonna-do-with-your-life stuff a bit too seriously anyway?

But Mike has Vince Vaughn Dad, the “STRUCTURE” guy, so what’re-you-gonna-do-with-your-life seriousness clings to him like an omnipresent shroud. Mike decides he needs to bear down and focus on skating, like REALLY FOCUS. And that means tearing some shit down. He quits the water polo team after showing up late to practice, having to do a zillion pushups and then getting in a fistfight with his teammate; he gets his ass beat, so Vince Vaughn Dad gives him a boxing lesson. He determines that Jay and Adolf don’t take skating seriously enough, so he begins shedding them in a mealy-mouthed way, and finds some pro skaters, with real endorsements and shit, to hang out with. Rachel comes around to his charms. And he mealy-mouths his way through a series of non-truth fibbarinos about the damn college apps to his dad. He’s maybe losing himself, but also maybe he’s finding himself. Complicating matters is the fact that he’s actually pretty good at this skating stuff. Things would be so much easier if he sucked.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: North Hollywood finds the Superbad sweet spot between Thrashin’ and Dazed and Confused.

Performance Worth Watching: McLaughlin holds the movie together with a strong lead performance that finds exactly what makes his character endearing and, at times, infuriating.

Memorable Dialogue: “Are you wearing a sweater and shorts?” — Vince Vaughn Dad

Sex and Skin: None. 2 bad 4 Mike.

Our Take: Skateboarding is a metaphor here. No no, hang with me. You gotta keep your head over your feet or you’re gonna eat shit. It’s about balance. And Mike is just struggling to keep his head over his feet with this life stuff. See? METAPHOR, baby!

Thing is, Mike is a frustrating person to hang with for the first hour of North Hollywood. Adolf’s annoyed, Jay’s annoyed, Vince Vaughn Dad’s annoyed, we’re all annoyed. MIke says he’s full-bore and then he gets all wishy-washy. You just want to tell him to speak his damn truth and follow through with it, but he’s a teenager, and although every teenager is stupid by nature, he’s being a little stupider than most. He keeps getting in fights and pissing off the people who love him. “You act like a kid, and it’s embarrassing,” he tells Adolf, and it’s a testament to their longstanding friendship that Mike doesn’t get his face socked.

North Hollywood is an unassuming charmer, a lightweight but surprisingly deep little character study. Writer/director Mikey Alfred hones in on the details that make the boys’ bro-hood convincing, that makes Vince Vaughn Dad more than just a caricature of the disapproving single father. This isn’t a boilerplate stoner-teen raunch-com aiming for big guffaws and overamped sentiment. The characters get their go-rounds with Mike and some truth rises to the surface. The direction is assured and thoughtful, visually interesting without being overly flashy or steering us away from Mike’s confused, exploratory point-of-view. Mike realizes that something has to change, but maybe doesn’t realize that something will have to change after that, and after that, and again after that. There’s your life lesson right there.

Notably, Mike is a Catholic altar boy forced out of his position at the beginning of the movie, because he’s too old. It takes the rest of the movie for him to come to Jesus (and I don’t mean Vince Vaughn Dad, because he’s only one perspective here). There’s another literary thing for you — irony. This is a good, smart, sincere movie.

Our Call:North Hollywood is understated and likely to be underrated. I’m gonna do my part to make that last part a little less true: STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream North Hollywood