There’s an allure to surfing that doesn’t come with sports such as pickleball. You’re on the water and hoping to grab a powerful wave which can kill you. The amount of grace and beauty a surfer can achieve when they catch a wave breaking just right is incomparable. I’ve heard it described as a true communion with nature. Like any sport, it’s also been turned into a competition that gets judged on skill and performance. Director Andrew Mackenzie had made the original Trilogy in 2007. It featured surfers the late Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson, and Taj Burrow on a surfing safari. Trilogy: New Wave brings together three different young surfers who are beginning to make their names known on the international surfing scene.
Griffin Colapinto is from San Clemente, California. A teenager’s life on the coast town is all about surfing. He’s a bit of a goofball. His parents ran a surf school in the summers. Ethan Ewing and Seth Moniz is from Honolulu, Hawaii. He points out that surfing isn’t the focus so much as being a waterman. He fishes for food. They have a lot of people around the family dinner table, so he needs to catch a lot of fish. His father has a fulltime surf school. Ethan Ewing lives on an island off Brisbane, Australia. His mother was a title winning surfer, but died when Ethan was six. His father was a fire fighter, so he learned surfing on his own.
The bulk of the film involves the trio going around the world practicing their surfing techniques on a variety of waves before the main competition season kicks into gear. A few times they camp out on the beaches so they’re ready to hit the waves when they’re breaking just right. Ethan is a bit quiet compared to Griffin and Seth. He admits he’s rather shy and also focused. Nobody is shy when they hit the waves from Peru to South Africa to Indonesia. They are each trying to outdo each other even without judges scoring. Because of the improvements in video cameras and drones, director Andrew Mackenzie and his crew are able to get us deep into the action. The best shots are when he switches to black and white with slow motion. You feel the energy as the surfers are on the break of the wave. We do get reminded of the dangers of the sport when one of the three gets injured.
Because we get a sense what drives the three surfers, the film is more than a collection of greatest moves. You get a sense of how their personalities are reflected in the way they handle their boards and challenge the waves. The tiny person on the giant wave interests us. You’ll wince when they wipeout. Trilogy: New Wave is a film you want run in the background during the day to take in the breathtaking beauty while you’re stuck at the home office desk.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The DVD doesn’t look bad with the amount of motion on the screen when filled with a wave chasing after a surfer in the tube. The Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0. There’s a good mix of recent movies, voice overs from the three surfers and surf noises coming from the speakers.
Trailer (2:30) gets into what the three surfers do to rise up in their sport. Surfing is their life.
MVD Visual presents Trilogy: New Wave. Director Andrew Mackenzie. Screenplay by Jack Craymer, Pat Hall & Andrew Mackenzie. Starring Griffin Colapinto, Ethan Ewing and Seth Moniz. Running Time: 74 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Release Date:
