Surfing

Surfing is a superb, tightly constructed drama. Set in Birmingham in 1969 (effectively the vague backdrop to our story since the action only takes place in one room), a down-on-his-luck musician finds himself sleeping on a friend’s sofa when he receives a phone call about a potential gig. This gig isn’t for him, however, but meant for the person whose sofa he’s crashing on. Our protagonist Pete, played by Harry Clarke in a performance which the whole film hinges on, feels like a British reimagining of the similarly ill-fated, self-sabotaging character of Llewyn Davis in the 2013 Coen Brothers masterpiece.

Clarke (who is also the film’s writer-producer) delivers a great performance which is both effectively comedic and holds pathos. And in terms of the technical side of the production, director Duane Adamoli is also the film’s cinematographer and editor. Whilst this is a small-scale production, Adamoli and Clarke have formed a strong collaborative team – with one in charge of story and performance, the other in charge of aesthetics and assembly. Both demonstrate an impressive level of craft in their respective areas, making Surfing a near-faultless cinematic expression.

It’s not easy to find anything of note to complain about with regards to this short. The only possible flaw I can find has more to do with the very nature of current short-filmmaking than it does with the movie itself... By deciding to tell a story based around a series of phone calls – set, as I’ve mentioned, in one room – you’re bound to have a critic or two say that the filmmakers have limited themselves in terms of creative scope. While watching, I personally do not find this to be the case. And yet, you can’t help but be reminded that this is what a great proportion of short films are these days. It makes sense since it saves time and money; and out of all the shorts this critic has seen recently that fall into said category, this resides in the very top tier in terms of quality.

The cinematography and design of this project appeals to me greatly on a personal and artistic level. What follows is a quote provided in the submission notes for Surfing:

“Our aim was to create a character study reminiscent of early 1970s cinema and, through unorthodox methods, such as placing a pair of tights over the lens and make the film feel as though it had genuinely been shot in that period.”

For those who maybe aren’t filmmakers or who have little interest in low-budget cinematography techniques, this may even sound gimmicky. But when you see just how well these shots work, and how authentic the grain and the haze feels, it’s incredibly exciting for a fanatic like myself. The very specific period of low-light, low-contrast, murky and desaturated image-making – exemplified through Vilmos Zsigmond’s collaborations with Altman on The Long Goodbye and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (the greatest cinematographer-director combo there ever was or will be) – is the most fun aesthetic to be inspired by and attempt to recreate, even digitally. And why it works is because Surfing is not just trying to resemble film stock, but evoking the messy, textural, rebellious visual experiments of that era.