In skateboarding culture there’s always the possibility of gleaming the cube. The phrase, while slightly nonsensical, is a skater’s way of talking about pushing yourself to the brink. Obviously, this is meant to be used in relation to dropping into bowls and performing tricks, but it can also be easily applied to everyday life. How far are you willing to go to achieve something?
When Graeme Clifford’s 1989 film about a teen skateboarder trying to solve the mysterious death of his adopted brother came out, it didn’t really get a lot of love. Even though ‘80s heartthrob Christian Slater was front and center in the lead role of Brian Kelly, people just weren’t that into it. Some might say that’s because it’s not a very good movie, but even now, over three decades later, Gleaming the Cube is actually a whole lot more fun than people first gave it credit for. Over the years, the movie has found its fans, but finding ways to watch this oft-forgotten flick can be difficult since physical copies are hard to come by and it’s not easily available to stream. Because of this, the movie has flown under the radar.
This is slightly surprising when you consider just how prolific the skateboarding genre is for film (think Lords of Dogtown, Grind, Thrashin’, etc.) and how awesome the skate cast of Gleaming the Cube is. Sure, the film stars Slater, whose other cult film Heathers was released the previous year in 1988. But it also stars a frankly amazing supporting skateboarding cast that it’s almost insane to try and wrap your head around. Sure, Tony Hawk plays one of Slater’s skate friends, but it’s not just the well-known Hawk who makes an appearance. Another member of the famous Bones Brigade, Tommy Guerrero also plays one of Slater’s friends on screen, and other Bones Brigade members make up the crew that filmed all the skate stunts for the movie. There are big names in skate history here like Mike McGill, Rodney Mullen, Lance Mullen, Mike V (current front man for Black Flag) and Natas Kaupas, among others, and all of them were guided on set by Stacy Peralta, one of skateboarding’s original Z-Boys. If all that means nothing to you, just know that the skateboarding crew in this movie is the equivalent of having a long-lost basketball movie coming out of the woodwork that starred the major players of the 1995 Chicago Bulls. Oh, and yes. That is Jackson’s cousin Rune (Max Perlich) from those early episodes of Gilmore Girls.
But even if you can’t get behind the impressive skateboarding history, the movie is still an extremely good time. Sure, it can be cheesy and very ‘80s inspired, but the film is unexpectedly dark. Slater’s character grieves the loss of his adopted Vietnamese brother Vinh (Art Chudabala), and attempts to solve a devastating mystery: did his brother really die by suicide as the police claimed–was he murdered? The way the filmmakers navigate Vinh’s death really pushes the movie down some murky paths, and there are times where the subject matter feels almost too dark for a film about slacker skateboarders. Slater really does push himself to his limits, as he proves that his love for his brother truly knows no bounds. He gleams the cube at the skate park, but he also gleams it in his relentless attempts at uncovering the truth.
That’s part of what makes Gleaming the Cube so great. The unlikely pairing of crime drama with skate culture means that when Tony Hawk and the rest of the local skate crew show up in a Pizza Hut truck to help Slater take down the bad guys, you cannot help but cheer. It’s so ridiculous that it works. The movie also features a killer synth-heavy theme song that will absolutely get stuck in your head immediately (plus, it’s kind of really great to actually skate to).
While Gleaming the Cube isn’t going to dethrone Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time, it is a decidedly fun time that deserves way more love and mainstream appreciation than it ever got.
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