Tag: surfer

The Road to Patagonia

Director – Matty Hannon – 2022 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 90m

****

A keen surfer and former ecology student from Australia sets out on a motorbike journey from Alaska down the West coast of the Americas to Patagonia – out on digital on Monday, July 28th

The family of Australian moving picture diarist Matty Hannon moved around a lot during his childhood. He left home as soon as he could, and studied ecology at university, where he became fascinated by the book Shamans of Mentawai about tribes living in Indonesia’s Sumatran Islands. A keen surfer, he went out to one of the islands, rode the incredible waves, embraced a simple lifestyle and felt he’d arrived in a utopia where people lived in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. He began to wonder if by concentrating on data in his studies, he’d been missing something. He stayed five years, from age 21-26.

On his return to Melbourne, he was hit by culture shock. Everything was commodified. He sat at a computer for work. He was now in a culture that referred to its people as consumers, where national success was measured in terms of how much they bought.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 June 2025
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Directed by Matty Hannon
Certificate 15
90 minutes
Released 27 June

In his mid-20s, former ecology student and keen surfer Matty Hannon returns to Melbourne, Australia. For five years, from age 21 to 26, he has lived alongside one of Indonesia’s Sumatran Island tribes, a utopia where people live in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. And then there are the waves.

Melbourne hits him with culture shock; a culture that refers to its people as consumers, where national success is measured in terms of how much they buy. Depression is common. Hannon records his response in this documentary as he gets out, takes a tent to Alaska, then… on his motorbike… travels down the West Coast of the Americas to Patagonia… [read the rest in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform]

[Read my longer review for this site here.]

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Tags 14 months, abattoir, age 21-26, Alaska, alternative lifestyle, Amazon rainforest, animism, Australia, Baja California, Baja Peninsula, balance, bike, bike theft, biker, breathtaking vistas, butcher, California, Canada, ceremony, Chile, civilisation collapse, clearing the jungle, commodification, commodified, community, computer, consumer culture, consumers, culture shock, depression, desert, destroying the ecosystem, Developed World, ecology, environmental impact, farming, fertilise the land, fuel, harmony with nature, Heather Hillier, home-built rig, horses as fellow spirits, Inca pyramids, inspiring, interconnectedness of living things, journey, landscape, letter-writing, lifestyle, living in the wild, local customers, Matty Hannon, Melbourne, Mexico, missing something, motorbike, Patagonia, plant medicines, population density, possessions, pre-packaged jobs, raise a family, reliance on motor fuel, respect, ride the waves, robbed, simple lifestyle, small farm, Southbound, spirit gods, spirits in balance, sprits, student, success measurement, surfboard, surfer, sustainable farm, sustainable future, tent, The Road to Patagonia, trade bikes for horses, travel, unspoiled beaches, US, utopia, Vancouver, voice-over, West coast of the Americas, work, work on computer

Features Live Action Movies

Dangerous Animals

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 June 2025
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Director – Sean Byrne – 2025 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 98m

*****

A free-spirited girl surfer must outwit the shark tour operator who has kidnapped her and whose idea of looking after customers is feeding them to the sharks – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 6th

Greg (Liam Greinke) invites Brit backpacker Heather (Ella Newton) to join him on a shark swim. So, off they go to Tucker (Jai Courtney), who runs shark-seeing tours using his boat. As in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975), you go in the cage, the cage goes in the water, the sharks are outside the cage. Heather has second thoughts, but the couple go for it, which turns out to be an amazing experience. You won’t believe what happens next. Greg certainly doesn’t. (Be advised: some online trailers give the game away. Thankfully, Vertigo’s teaser trailer, below, doesn’t.)

Free-spirited surfer Zephyr (Hessie Harrison) lives out of her van and one night indulges in passion there with yuppie Moses (Josh Heuston) parked outside his house, swiftly driving off afterwards before he has had a chance to take their relationship further, which is a pity from his point of view since he feels some sort of deeper connection.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Point Break
(1991)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 November 2024
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(1991)
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Director – Kathryn Bigelow – 1991 – US – Cert. 15 – 122m

*****

A rookie FBI man goes undercover with a group of surfers, believing them to be a gang of bank robbers who disguise themselves as former US Presidents – milestone action movie is out in a 4K Restoration in UK cinemas on Friday, November 8th as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

At a cursory glance, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about Point Break, a crime movie about bank robbers, surfers and undercover cops, except perhaps the juxtaposition of surfers on the one hand with cops and robbers on the other except as a route into making a film about cops undercover. Certainly, that juxtaposition pervades the film, with fresh out of training school, undercover FBI man Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) coming up against accomplished surfer Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and his new age-y philosophy of life, which is all about living in the moment and experiencing the biggest rush. Those two concepts happen to embody elements that could potentially make a great action film. Point Break does exactly that. Even though it’s a 35-year-old film, it feels as fresh today as it did on initial release.… Read the rest

Tags action, action hero, adrenaline rush. Physical, agent, Art of Action, Australia, backs, bank robber, beach, briefing, bromance, car, car chase, cars, chase, circle in the air, computer, confrontation, cop, cops and robbers, crash through glass, crime, death of parents, entering people’s houses, Ex-Presidents, FBI, fight, fights, freak weather, game of Chicken, gardens, Gary Busey, glass door, hand ball games, holding hands, impotence, John McGinley, jump from a plane, Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, keep going, living in the moment, loose cannon, Lori Petty, male, male bonding, mayhem, new age, night and day, office, on foot, parachute, party, Patrick Swayze, philosophy, physicality, President masks, pursuer and pursued, pursuit, raid, ripcord, run-in, running, rush, sea, sedentary, separate existences, shoulders, sitting, skydiving, stakeout, storm, stunts, surfer, surfing, surfing season, takeaways, testosterone, throw a dog, training school, undercover, US, wave, withering put-downs, without a parachute