Drift

There's been plenty of surf films and documentaries over the years, and if you're a surfer or surfing fan, no doubt you've seen them all. Drift is the latest surf film paying tribute to and giving us a glimpse into the Australian surf life when popular surf brands were just beginning.

Set in Western Australia in the early 1970's, Drift is the story of surfer brothers Andy and Jimmy Kelly (Myles Pollard and Xavier Samuel). Andy is dissatisfied with working long hours at the local mill, while trying to keep younger brother Jimmy from a life of crime. With help from their mother Kat (Robyn Malcolm), and childhood friend Gus (Aaron Glenane), they start a surf shop in their backyard garage, making custom-made wetsuits and new surfboards.

Along the way they meet and get inspiration from surfer photographer/filmmaker JB (Sam Worthington) and his Hawaiian friend Lani (Lesley-Ann Brandt). Their success and hard work comes at a price though as they deal with members of the community who are not ready for their innovative ideas and trouble from a violent bikie gang.

The acting is fine all round. Myles Pollard, who also co-produced the film, is solid as the responsible older brother. Xavier Samuel, in one of his best performances, brings charisma and energy to his role. Sam Worthington is excellent. He is perfect as the free-spirited hippie. He seemed to enjoy this role more than some of his recent work and it was wonderful to see him in an Aussie film again.

The film does a great job of bringing the 70's back to life. You gotta love JB's colourful bus and the classic kombi vans! The surfing photography is exciting and breathtaking, and the cinematography by Geoffrey Hall is simply beautiful. The soundtrack, a mix of 70's classics and more recent tunes, really adds to the cool laid back vibe.

Directed by Ben Nott and Morgan O'Neill, Drift is well-paced and there's a lovely balance between the surfing scenes and the dramas of everyday life. I honestly would've loved to have seen a few more surfing scenes. And even if you're not interested in surfing, this honest Australian film will inspire and engage.

The cast and crew looked like they had fun making this film and it shows. A snapshot into the Aussie surf life, it was a highly enjoyable and upbeat movie experience.

Big surf, cool 70's vibe. Give this movie a chance, make popcorn and have a beer. Excellent surf photography, beautiful, rough coastline of Australia. You will enjoy this film if you remember the big boards and OP board shorts. Goes slow but gets better just like the waves!. There are great scenes where old style cameras and wetsuits are used. The actors are good, you will recognize one of the actors from the film 'Clash of the Titans'! The plot could use some help but the feel of the film is very hippie style. There is a few drug scenes but they didn't mess that up too bad. The surfing is definitely the best. Real pros in every scene with old boards used for the film to keep it true to the time. Enjoy dude!

As far as the sports genre is concerned, those featuring surfing are about as niche as you go. Only 12 films have ever grossed more than $1 million at the domestic box office let alone found any measure of breakout success. Those that did find some semblance of an audience, like Soul Surfer and Point Break, had the added aid of family appeal and incorporating a heist element respectively, but for the most part they land with a whisper – not anything like the thundering, mammoth waves these daredevils tackle.

But in spite of this subgenre's lack of mainstream appeal there is one thing they – and Australian import Drift – prove, and that is surfing looks damn cool, especially when presented so slickly and in such a high energy fashion. So it's a shame in the case of this period drama (which transports us back to the early years of the sport in the land down under) that the wet and wild sequences trump anything transpiring on dry land and that most of the human drama relies on unnecessary plot turns and the usual formula that accompanies almost all sport based fare.

Drift follows two brothers Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) and Andy Kelly (Myles Pollard) and their mother who reside in a small seaside town following a late night escape from their abusive father/husband. Already carrying a passion for surfing, the two grow with the hobby and view their actual jobs as mostly inconveniences. It's one day when their mother's seamstress occupation produces a homemade wetsuit that gives Andy the idea of marrying passion with profession and they endeavour to open their own surf shop with customized gear and boards. But of course, nothing is as easy as it seems as money, gangsters, the allures of the hippy age and rivalries all act as roadblocks to a newfound dream.

Things are kicked off even further by the arrival of a duo of righteous surfers played by a tubular Sam Worthington and his plutonic companion Lani, played by Spartacus: Blood and Sand's Lesley-Ann Brandt. So with this rag tag gang assembled they seek to revolutionize how surfers view the gear they use: surf attire made by surfers, not made by "the man" and promoted by models who have never hit the waves a day in their life. The premise, retro feel and fine performers make Drift seem like the right idea of how to approach this sport – using it as a backdrop to a family drama and a struggle for the little guy (with some awesome surf sequences tossed in for good measure).

While this is the case some of the time, Drift invests in too many unnecessary plot threads, including one about some thugs who for some reason have an issue with the Kellys, which eventually involves into an all out war as one of their own gets mixed up in the drug trade. With the Kellys already struggling with a mortgage, their start-up business and the trials of growing together, this added kink proves to be nothing more than a distraction (and is furthermore concluded in a laughably stunted fashion). There is also a bizarre storyline involving a completely underdeveloped, inexplicably evil banker trying to steal the Kellys farm, er, house which adds nothing but a cartoonish villain that makes Mr. Potter look chipper.

Worthington's character JB is also a bit of a perplexing entity, though the Aussie native's performance is certainly among the most natural he's ever given. His tippy motif is fine enough, never becoming to philosophic and grating, but his ideals seem completely jumbled. One moment he's stating (regarding the Kelly's plan to make their own surf line) that you can't beat the man by becoming the man and at another instance saying that you can't always fight and should sometimes just resign to what is. Additionally scenes of him using his passion for photography and filmmaking to help make these brothers distinct in the industry go nowhere until the very end, deviating from the main story for what become perfunctory attempts to add substance.

Then we arrive at the climax, which of course involves a local surf competition, the winnings from which could save the family farm, er, house and get those gangsters off their back. Again, while impressively staged (and not concluded in the most ridiculous way possible) it collectively doesn't get much more clichéd than that, and when you lump in the montages and other corny moments it truly softens the experience.

Not content on just examining an interesting moment in history, Drift piles on dramatic excess and contrived turns which are muted to some effect only by universally strong work from the cast and, again, those gripping surf sequences. So while certainly not boring and far from offensively bad, Drift isn't compelling enough to warrant anything other than a rental, and definitely not enough to spur any sort of revolution for the surf drama.

"You know the trouble with being the last man standing? You got no one to share it with." This is the true story of Jimmy (Samuel) & Andy Kelly. They are two brothers who share a love for surfing. When they come up with an idea to open a shop to sell their own gear Andy is 100% into it while Jimmy just wants to do his own thing. Between the money problems, the dangerous waves and angry bikers things don't go as easy as the brothers planned. There have been a few surfing movies to come out in the last few years. Soul Surfer I thought was very good. Chasing Mavericks was OK. This one is a little of both. The first hour and a half were a little slow and I almost stopped it a few times, but the ending was great and I am very glad that I stuck with it. There are some movies that are good but the ending seems to ruin everything. This one is the opposite. The movie is a little slow moving but the ending makes up for it. Overall, a movie that is a struggle in some parts but the end is a great reward for sticking with it. I give it a B-.

I can't stop watching all these surfing films. I'm a huge fan of Chasing Mavericks and this was up to standard! It wasn't as good as Chasing Mavericks, but still really good, the old Hippie-Flower-Power thing is making it even better.

The choice of actors/actresses was fantastic, Sam Worthington, Xavier Samuel and Lesley-Ann Brandt, just to mentions a few - did a really good job. This movie gave both joy and emotional moments and the contents were perfect. This movie is for a person who's in to surfing, and who likes the sixties. The film begins with black and white color effect, which shows us the past and then switches to color when they are grownup. Like I said the story is really interesting, and it gets even more interesting when you know it has happened!

I recommend almost anyone to watch it, and especially you who've seen "Chasing Mavericks"!