I recently watched “The Drifter”. Taylor Steele’s big-budget-surf-film.

Yet another failed attempt at bringing a story regarding surfing with depth, conflict, character arcs etc… like “Surfer, Dude”.

“The Drifter” doesn’t move passed the surf film genre into anything else. Rather, you’re disappointed half of the time with all of Machado’s talking and non-surfing footage.

The producers should have hired, Fatima Toledo, the lady who coached the child actors in “City of God”. Those were non-actors and they rocked it. But then again, they had a story to work with…

No excuses. If you can’t write a compelling tale, stick to good surfing and good music. Your movies are probably just going to end up playing in bars with the sound totally off anyways…

Films are about the narrative & the event (parties, festivals, etc…) Surf films are directly correlated to the events that surround them. That’s fine. Until there is sufficient narrative in the films, let’s throw some images up on a wall so we can drink & sing & dance.

I liked the music. Especially, “Heart it Races” by Dr. Dog and “Beach Baby” by Bon Iver.