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Longtime
readers of this column will recall that I am a fan of John
Hancock’s beach classic California Dreaming.
Seeing Blue Crush a second time in a couple
of days, I was reminded in California Dreaming and
the way the film left me with a crush on Glynnis O’Connor
and Tanya Roberts and Alice Playten… three very
different women with very different figures.
But unlike so many films, these women were real.
And they were real sexy too.
Blue Crush happens to display its women in all assortments of
skimpy attire. And
Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe
Lake are all very sexy. But they are sexy because they are real.
They are alive in a way that is absolutely infectious.
Whether they are surfing the most remarkable waves
ever recorded for a feature film or trying to weasel a discount
at the local food mart, claiming that Hostess products are
proper breakfast foods or even working hard for a living,
these are not just girls that arouse the senses.
These are young women that you just know would be a
barrel of laughs over a beer or a video game or, obviously,
a surfboard.
Charlie’s
Angels claimed to be a girlpower movie, but it wasn’t. When push came to shove, our troupe of feminists
pushed their lips out into a pout or shoved their breasts
in men’s faces to get what they wanted.
In Blue Crush, these women are doing what they
want to do and working hard to maintain their freedom to do
it. There is still
a cute boy and a love story, but these women know about the
world. And they are
strong enough to survive.
John Stockwell has become, surprisingly, the strongest “women’s director”
in the business right now.
And I suspect that the box office return for Blue
Crush will make that designation an even higher honor
than it is today. Blue Crush doesn’t delve into the dysfunction
that dominated Stockwell’s last film, Crazy/.Beautiful. Nonetheless, that film also featured a strong
woman at the center, trying to find her way. Stockwell’s touch with the underdog bodes well for a long career
making films that actually touch the human heart and not just
the part of the brain that gets excited by loud noises and
flashing lights. And isn’t it stunning that Stockwell and fellow
Christine alum Keith Gordon have become two
of the very best intimate filmmakers in America today?
Is Alexandra Paul going to give up acting and
the triathalon to take her shot next?
The credits
of Blue Crush are also a unique experience.
Brian Grazer has been front and center, but
this is also the first producing credit for the team of Buffy
Shutt and Kathy Jones, former Universal and Columbia
marketing co-chiefs who were kicked upstairs shortly after
they were hired, back in the Bronfman era.
The film is based on a magazine article by the great
Susan Orlean. This is the first of two films to be release
this year, centered around women and generated from Orlean’s
work. The other is Adaptation, which comes
from Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief, which started
as a magazine article and which stars Meryl Streep
as Orlean. (The screenplay was adapted and co-written
by Lizzy Weiss.)
The only
weakness in this film comes from a handful of CG manipulated
shots of Ms. Bosworth’s face stuck on her surf doubles body.
But the reason these few badly done shots are so galling
(and doing them right is a near possible task in an environment
like the one in Blue Crush, with live water and a stunt
double whose head is wider than Ms. Bosworth’s) is that the
film feature’s such spectacular work by Stockwell, cinematographer
David Hennings, Second Unit Director Mary Ellen
Woods (I’m assuming) and editor Emma Hickox in
putting you right there in the water with the girls.
If there
has ever been a better fictional film made about surfing…
if there has ever been a more beautiful film of any kind about
surfing… I haven’t seen it. I will happily encourage any of you who end
up loving Blue Crush to pick up Dogtown & Z-Boys
when it finally arrives in video and DVD.
But even that visual extravaganza doesn’t do what Blue
Crush does. There’s no point in detailing some of the techniques
that the team uses to make this movie work so well. Until you have seen the work, you won’t understand.
And after you see it, you’ll have to go back to see
all of the strokes.
It’s not
like Blue Crush is the cure for the common cold.
It’s still a little movie about a girl with a dream,
her two friends that get her through the hard times, the little
sister that she’s responsible for and the guy she falls in
love with. But it
has that odd little magic that films like Dirty Dancing
and An Officer and a Gentleman had.
The girls all look great in their bikinis, but you
can’t help, no matter how much of a dirty old/young man/woman
you might be, but to look into their hearts… to smell the
surf… to ride the wave. Crush.
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