London –
it has been quite an amazing run for Frank Solomon and his biopic Let’s Be Frank. From a strange little conversation over beers with Peter Hamblin, to hooking up with Ben Harper for the soundtrack, all the way to a movie tour around the world for the premiers three years after the first conversation, and still ongoing.
The latest accolade for this unusual movie is 2016 Best Surf Film presented by Reef at the London Surf Film Festival recently, alongside other films that won various awards.
2016 Best Documentary presented by Sharp’s: Dirty Old Wedge by Tim Burnham
2016 Best Cinematography presented by Allpress: View From a Blue Moon by Blake Kueny
2016 Viewers Choice presented by Xcel Wetsuits: Chasing Zero by Chris McClean and CJ Mirra
It’s a strange kind of movie, with some violence and some sex, a little bit of surfing and a whole bunch of crazy characters in it, including John John (his mouth plays quite a big part) Josh and Dan Redman who play a psycho killer and a strange dude respectively, a guest appearance by Donny Frankenreiter and a soundtrack by Ben Harper. Not that I actually noticed the soundtrack, I was too busy sitting mesmerized at a very trippy film that nearly resembles a surf movie.
There are waves – Dungeons and Mullaghmore provide some serious bombs in the movie wave count, and there are a bunch of very cool left-hand tubes with our man Frank inside of them, but there are not enough waves, and no airs whatsoever, so make of that what you will.
Highlights of the movie include a wipe-out section with Frank suffering a few solid wipe-outs, a fight scene that must have been gnarly to film (I actually got fucked up – frank) and some very sexy young ladies with some of them ending up in bed with Frank. In fact, the camera zooms extreme in one of the girls’ arses in a tiny bikini and follows at close range, for a walk through a house to a pool, which was a delightful 30 seconds if not the highlight of the movie, for a friend of mine.
There is also a lot of attention focused on twins – a set of boy twins and a set of girl twins – who pop up in the movie quite often. Their influence serves to add an aura of puzzlement to the movie, compounded when the two girls talk at the same time.
The Dungeons footage is inspiring, and the drone’s eye view of Seal Island shows a new and fresh perspective to the big wave location. It shows it to be a whole lot more intimidating than watching from the safety of a boat deep in the channel.
We have enjoyed a number of very high action surf movies over the years, some with delightful sound tracks and others not so much. Taylor Steel and Kai Neville’s out put over the years have been mind blowing in the nature of high action, but maybe people’s tastes are changing and maybe, in this world of consistent imagery and video clips and youtubes put in our face every single day, it’s time for a change. Maybe people – surfers or not – just want to be entertained.
Red Bull, as well as Hurley supported the movie production, and Peter Hamblin spent three years making it. That Ben Harper chose to write the soundtrack means that he recognized something good was on the go here. This award is great recognition for a movie that might possible redefine the genre.
Winning this award is a big deal.