we have the same top 3 right now, in reverse order.

so yeah, I agree this movie is amazing.

The first 30 minutes (the set up) is rather boring. X guy determines that he doesn't want to live "x" way and does "x" with his life and has children. The whole thing builds up this dude. Then it starts falling apart. First they show one of his daughters who has chosen to live a very suburban lifestyle and then pretty much all the kids have some major damage control issues.

The lesson of the film to me is balance in all things and the damage that parents due to their children because of their own hang ups. He instills a sense of "freedom" in his kids that is just as binding and inescapable as other situations. And his children suffer greatly for it, and I'm not sure that he or the mother gets it at all.

A fascinating film. Was a little scared at first, but definitely a must-watch.

My emotions were all over the place the first time I saw the film.

Dorian Paskowitz is both a madman and a genius.

AND I still don't know how I feel about him.

I don't know if I feel the need to feel anything about him. I don't necessarily consider someone this flawed to be an authority or anything to aspire to be.

My goal is balance in life I guess. This dude is the complete opposite. And I get the impression from the film that he's so caught up in his own "story" that he wouldn't see the real truth of the universe if it smacked him in the face.

Yeah, this is awesome. I'd definitely group it with Grizzly Man, as sort of a psyche/life philosophy portrait of a guy that's half crazy and half admirable for doing life as he wanted.

I found it interesting how Don eventually contradicts his own philosophy of 'live the way you want/freedom', stopping his children when they want regular life, essentially committing the same wrong enforcing of 'rules' he originally fought against. These rules eventually inadventantly push the kids away and lead them down into a spiral.

I liked how for Don sex is a godsend, but for the kids it through leading to marriage and feeding a family, bludgeons them, without education to back them up. This emphasizes Don's message of society making sex a bad thing, or society blackening the good stuff in life, in general. Whether Don's decisions were right or wrong is ambigious, but it's undeniable the kids were happy living his motorhome life and then became disturbed and depressed when they left it. They rely on the anger of not getting education, but is that really the root of it? Or is it just the easiest place to put their blame. After all, Don raised 9 kids in a van and lived happily... the kids struggling with 1 or 2 despite having jobs and being famous, I suppose that says something about the effect society had when they went back in it.

I found the guy who relies on his story of "I wanted to be a doctor, but was told it would take 10 years to catch up. So I quit and went to work in a restaurant for the rest of my life" to be funny. There's certainly less streneous jobs than being a doctor if you want to get educated, more of the blame has to go on him for being too weak to committ to a long period of work, if he's that set on lack of education as the root of his problems. I also really doubt it takes 10 years to make up high school to even be an MD, he probably set that out with a low work schedule or twisted the college level in there to create sympathy for himself and an excuse for being lazy. I mean 10 years is grade 2 to grade 12 with tons of other shit in there. No way it takes that long.

It definitely raises a lot of complex questions about ways of living life and paints a number of fascinating, fascinating psychological portraits, from all involved. There can definitely be arguments made for both sides, that ambigious nature is what makes it brilliant.

From a filmmaking aspect the editing and general pace and charisma of this thing to also fabulous, it's an entertaining and brisk movie for sure.

One of the best docs I've seen, right there with Grizzly Man and Man on Wire. All three sort of transcend the medium, really... See it!

5/5

!!!!!!!! Awesome Shack. Thanks for seeking it out.

worst. jew. ever.

more thoughts later.

I thought I was watching That 70's Laguna Beach Show. the shiny bow it's all wrapped in ruined it for me.
paskowitz is the vile sort, but interesting at least. his alpha son is only the vile sort.



no I think it says more about the illusion mr. paskowitz lived in. I don't see the ambiguity? the children have no education, serious emotional damage, delusions of grandeur and a father who feels they've failed him.

anyways, I think this could have been quite an interesting study of cult leader (who mistakes his evil for delusion for righteousness) and his unknowing flock. but then they made it all pretty. I did like cult leader's brother though.

whichever road you take in analyzing paskowitz, it is most important to stop trying to justify him and let the fact that he forced his nine children to go uneducated hit you hard across the head.

In the end, it is pretty.

The family unit is all they have and because they were raised under such extreme circumstances, it actually made them closer (some at least) as siblings.

I think Doc was a monster but there's also a perverted genius about it all.

I'm not the biggest fan of documentaries, but this was a really well made little movie. Ususally i only like documentaries that i have interest in their subject matter, but i enjoyed this overall.

So for this year...

Surwise = B+
Man on Wire = B

Look Jay Brissenden, you better write an enthusiastic review for the Sagebrush.

Haha, no more reviews from me until the start of next semester. Sadly that means it won't ever be mentioned in the Sagebrush since it is definitely not making my top 10

Sorry Loyal!

Surfwise

Like many great films, "Surfwise" is much more than what it looks.

You expect a full coverage of surfing and stuffs. This film has plenty of that for you. But along the way, a tale of one family was told.

This family or what it has been called, "the first family of surfing" was led by "Doc" Dorian Paskowitz, a Stanford graduate who, after two times of marriage failure, decided to leave behind him to what seems to be an "okay world" for any man but "the most miserable part of life" to him (as he makes the statement in this film). In searching the meaning of life, or whatever his purpose was, he travelled around the world and met Juliette, a woman who later became a mother of his nine kids. Well, thanks to the highest sex score she's got from him. The whole family lived in a 24-foot minivan, since then.

"Surfwise" begins with one happy (as it seems) family doing the exercise which seems to be something they've been doing every morning. Happy as they look, you might wonder how they will survive in their 24-foot camper. Well, roughly as it might be, in the end, they managed to do so.
Dorian Paskowitz is no different than any other parent. The highest achievement he would love to have is watching his kids having their lives at their best form. To his belief, the formal education is dangerous; healthy is the key of life. This philosophy lifestyle, perfect as he would think it was, to some of his kids (everyone, actually), was an invisible prison which their parent failed to see.

God, that sounds familiar. Oh wait, it happens to me too!

It occurs to me to think that it might be because of how he has suffered great deal with his experience in life that leads him to believe that knowledge is no wisdom. Of which led him to his idealistic way of life. After all, "we are what we have been through".

Every one of us is created to be different. What is perfect for someone, might not suit well for someone else, even these two "someone" are father and son. I wouldn't dare to judge Doc's action. And I doubt anyone who has seen this film would too. It was another case of no one's fault. And this, to Doug Pray's credit, was fascinating. Dorian Paskowitz is a great man, wild and crazy in the same time. The complexity of this character would fall into pieces if not handled with great care. Doug Pray, at his most honesty, takes a great care to his work. He's not here to judge anyone. He simply explores the world of "Paskowitz" family, tells their stories honestly and respectfully. How will the viewer views Dorian Paskowitz (or any other members) is left up to him/her.

The progression of a documentary is no different than what was in a film. There is a story, there are the characters. Here, all characters are well-developed. The story is well-told with perfect pitch of pacing. The small difference is that the story happens to be non-fiction. And thanks to a fascinating work by Doug Pray, not once that I felt if something on screen was scripted. In short, "Surfwise" is no less than any other great fictional film about dysfunction family.

At the rest of film-making aspect, "Surfwise" is well-crafted. I especially loved the combination work of the editing and film's score. It added up lots of tense and emotional impact to the film and produced one of the most fascinating things in this film; how complete this film was, in capturing the "A-Z" moment of the 'Paskowitz' family, whether by photographs or family videos. They were all well-put and well-placed. Yes, one of Paskowitz's kids is one of this film's producers. But what would the good be if you got all the materials but don't know how to deal with it.

In the end, with all differences, everything still tied up together with the love of family. How would anyone think of the Paskowitz? Have it in your way. But one thing you can't deny; they are bound together as one big family with as big of heart and love. They've done something right. As someone's quote in the end of the film, having a flawed family is better than not having a family at all. Plus, whose family is not without a flaw.

A

I enjoyed it, but, overall, it felt a little too slick and disingenuous to really resonate with me. There's no sense of what the filmmaker really wanted to say about Paskowitz and his merry band of children - whether good or bad - so instead we're left with an entertaining but shallow portrait of the man. All the flash and style in the world won't do you any good if you do nothing with it.

It's also far too staged and manufactured to really ring true. Especially the 'reunion' at the end - seemed a little too convenient to be passed off as coincidence or circumstance.

Still, it's a fun film to watch. It's just not up to the heights that the other documentaries this year are at.