BLUE CRUSH

7/10

USA 2002 : John Stockwell : 104 mins

As teen movies go, Blue Crush is a distinct cut above average – against all expectations, there’s plenty here to engage, entertain and perhaps even impress audiences far beyond its target demographic of 11-16 year old girls. If, that is, such potential customers can see beyond their own snobbery, and also the film’s unpromising title, trailer and poster: all of which suggest airhead surfer-chick nonsense along the lines of Britney Spears’ instantly forgettable Crossroads. Loosely based on an article by (of all people) Susan ‘Adaptation’ Orlean, it’s the story of Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), a model-pretty but dirt-poor young Hawaiian who dreams of a pro-surfing career. There’s the usual array of obstacles and distractions (Matthew Davis as a nice-guy NFL quarterback) along the way to the usual inspirational finale, but Stockwell and Lizzie Weiss’s script inject more than enough reality into the standard Hollywood formula to make Blue Crush a surprisingly rough – and therefore all the more rewarding – ride.

1^st April, 2003
(seen UCI MetroCentre, Gateshead, 30^th March)

click here for a feature-length essay on Blue Crush

by Neil Young

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