A nuanced departure from the traditional sport movie
Ride the Wave ✪✪✪✪
The Novice ✪✪✪
“Big-wave riding’s for macho assholes with a death wish,” scorned Lori Petty in Point Break. Not so according to moving Scottish surfing documentary Ride the Wave.
Following Tiree-based teenage surfing prodigy Ben Larg as he transitions from global surfing competitions for under-18s to tackling formidable-looking breaks off the coast of Ireland, Martyn Robertson’s film – which just had its Scottish premiere at Glasgow Film Festival – is admirably devoid of testosterone, focussing instead on how this quiet, thoughtful, relentlessly bullied kid comes into his own on the water.
It’s also a film about Ben’s parents, and Robertson does a good job of exploring the often heart-rending decisions they’ve had to make to support him.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t gnarly wipe-outs and Rocky-style training sessions, but having followed Ben and his loving family for
four years, Robertson has a bigger story to tell, one that adds nuance and humanity to the driven outsider archetype beloved of sports movie narratives.
Coincidentally, the festival’s Surprise Film delivered an almost ludicrously ampedup spin on this trope.
Set within an all-women’s competitive collegiate rowing programme, The Novice features a fine turn from upand-coming actress Isabelle Fuhrman as Alex, a first year student with a monomaniacal determination to prove that hard work alone can trump simple talent.
Joining the rowing team on a whim, she becomes obsessed with besting the other girls, a physical challenge that starts exacerbating some deep-rooted mental health issues.
The end result is a little Black Swan, a little Whiplash, and though debut writer/director Lauren Hadaway (who worked on Whiplash as a sound editor) finds stylish ways to immerse us in Alex’s subjective point-of-view, she loses track of the drama with an overblown and unconvincing finale.