Filmic evidence of both mankind’s folly and its boundless capacity for thrill-seeking still connected to the natural world, Storm Surfers offers up a look at surfing legends and best friends Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones. Narrated by Toni Collette, somewhat ironically for such a Fire in the Belly-type work, this gorgeously lensed affair is one part “Redbull cinema” (okay, maybe one-and-a-half) but also one part fraternal rumination, buoyed by the maturity and rootedness of its subjects.
Storm Surfers unfolds in and around Australia, homeland to the aforementioned pair. With the assistance of surf forecaster Ben Matson, Carroll and Clarke-Jones track and chase giant storms in their effort to ride some of the biggest and most dangerous swells in the Pacific Ocean, dropping in via jet skis. Co-directors Justin McMillan and Chris Nelius do a good job of blending their film’s action footage with interview segments talking about inner motivations and the like, although from a certain perspective Storm Surfers could use a bit more familial mooring. When Carroll talks about he and Clarke-Jones, both well into their 40s, passing through the stages of life together, with “wives and kids and all that,” it begs the question: wait a second, where are they again, and what exactly do they think of what you do?
The film’s visual bona fides, however, are never in question; its cinematography is exquisite, providing you-are-there thrills by putting viewers right inside the barrels of waves along with its subjects. Cameras are mounted actually on the surfboards and jet skis, and the directors make use of helicopters (already part of the safety and oversight crew) to provide aerial perspective. Its specificity may preclude certain general audiences from seeking it out, but for those who do Storm Surfers devotes enough time to cultivating a message that resonates beyond the X-Games subset. Find your bliss, it tells viewers. Such pursuits fill up the soul.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Storm Surfers comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track. Bonus features include profiles of Carroll, Clarke-Jones and aforementioned forecaster Matson, plus a nice little behind-the-scenes featurette with directors McMillan and Nelius. To view the movie’s trailer, click here; to purchase the DVD via Half, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)
Daily Archives: August 18, 2013
We the Parents
A healthy roster of social-activist documentaries have tackled America’s public education crisis, most notably Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting For Superman. Director James Takata’s We the Parents, though, is refracted through a decidedly different prism.
A briskly paced piece of moment-in-time cinema, it’s a fascinating look at the new frontier of so-called parent trigger laws, which allow, via petition signatures, 51 percent of parents to basically form a union with control to either shut down their children’s place of learning or transform it into a charter school. The first law was passed by the California State Legislature in January, 2010; six additional states, including Texas, Indiana, Ohio and Connecticut, have followed suit, with another 20 states considering similar regulations.
We the Parents throws a warm, loving sunbeam of advocacy on Parent Revolution, a non-profit organization which, eschewing what it deems the outmoded “PTA model” of parental involvement, aggressively touts parents as the largest stakeholder group in the entire education system, and thus seeks to leverage that majority share into political power, through means that involve as much cudgeling as cajoling. A good portion of We the Parents charts the grassroots, community organizing efforts of the group as they first recruit and then help support parents for the law’s debut test case, involving failing McKinley Middle School in Compton.
While it’s definitely a movie which sides with this somewhat radical upending of conventional power structure and command, Parent Revolution’s Ben Austin and many others — including parents themselves, most of whom, existing on the socioeconomic margins, have been cowed too long by the political process — speak movingly as to the goals and larger possibilities of the parent trigger law. Also, Takata does include interviews with figures from McKinley’s administration, who obviously stood in dissent to the reform efforts.
In this most immediate sense, there’s a gripping, social-legal thriller aspect to the film, as one wants to see how things pan out for these families. (Spoiler alert: signature verification technicalities and other legal pushback ensues, putting matters back in the courts, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.) More robust dissent and a research-oriented point-of-view may likely have given We the Parents greater depth and dimensionality, but with the first schools transformed under this new law opening their doors this very week in California, Takata’s film represents a timely, relevant snapshot of a cause in active motion. Following its local engagement at the Laemmle Music Hall, We the Parents opens in New York City at the Quad Cinema on September 6. For more information on the film, click here to visit its website. (Go For Broke Pictures, unrated, 60 minutes)