This is a curious project that has had a hard time finding an audience because some parts are exactly what repel lovers of the other parts.
It is part home movie about an amazingly dull fellow, made duller by his voice-over narration. Hey, he's a surfer who makes his own surfboards and boats according to the most improbable criteria. We see him smelt lead in a way that would kill any brain.
It is part documentary of surf photography. There's a sequence where our hero is hired as a surf photographer for some movie or TeeVee show. A huge opportunity is missed when we don't get to learn what it is or see any of it. This would have been fantastic.
The final part after we see the guys sailing off on an adventure in an amateurish home movie section is a collage of POV wave shots without the surfers we've been burdened with up this point. It has apt music, unlicensed I'm sure, and is utterly hypnotic. Some other commenter has compared this sequence to "Koyaanisqatsi." That film to my mind is unctuous pandering, elevator cinema worthy of burning. This sequence is far better for a few reasons. It is pure water, more genuinely cinematic than what Reggio displays. And though the setting of the context tries our patience, we do have a context. Since the photographer seems so dumb, we feel that an hour is all it takes to know absolutely everything about him. I know him better than my own wife. We know about the camera. We know how he made even the surfboard the camera is mounted on (which we don't see). That context makes this visual poetry real.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
It is part home movie about an amazingly dull fellow, made duller by his voice-over narration. Hey, he's a surfer who makes his own surfboards and boats according to the most improbable criteria. We see him smelt lead in a way that would kill any brain.
It is part documentary of surf photography. There's a sequence where our hero is hired as a surf photographer for some movie or TeeVee show. A huge opportunity is missed when we don't get to learn what it is or see any of it. This would have been fantastic.
The final part after we see the guys sailing off on an adventure in an amateurish home movie section is a collage of POV wave shots without the surfers we've been burdened with up this point. It has apt music, unlicensed I'm sure, and is utterly hypnotic. Some other commenter has compared this sequence to "Koyaanisqatsi." That film to my mind is unctuous pandering, elevator cinema worthy of burning. This sequence is far better for a few reasons. It is pure water, more genuinely cinematic than what Reggio displays. And though the setting of the context tries our patience, we do have a context. Since the photographer seems so dumb, we feel that an hour is all it takes to know absolutely everything about him. I know him better than my own wife. We know about the camera. We know how he made even the surfboard the camera is mounted on (which we don't see). That context makes this visual poetry real.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.