DUST OFF THE WINGS 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
2 :-) :-) for the life of a surfie
Directed by Lee Rogers Cast Lee Rogers, Ward Stevens, Kate Ceberano Written by Lee Rogers, Ward Stevens
If you're wandering what the title of this movie means, it has something to do with the mating habits of moths, and the dust that falls off their wings which act as pheromones. Now who would have chosen such an unusual title for a movie about drugs, sex, surfing, marriage and infidelity? It would have to be ex-junky, now happily married, still surfing, Australian director Lee Rogers. The material on which the movie is based hangs loosely on the type of lifestyle he lived as a Bondi Beach surfer. Now married to Australian singer Kate Cebrano, who is also in the movie, he closes a chapter on the youthful wild days of his life.
In this movie "fuck" is a word more commonly found in a sentence than "and" or "the". He creates images of carefree surfers who do the average crazy things to get a thrill outside riding waves. There's a bit of coke snorting in the toilets, the occasional joint being smoked. Some casual sex whilst high, and a blow job on the side. It's no wonder Rogers has decided to get married and settle down. Such excessive roller coaster riding couldn't be too good for anybody's physical or mental health.
So Roger's story circles about his getting married and the problems that arise from within his world of confusion. He finds out that his fiancee has been seduced by another surfer whilst on drugs. Can he forgive her and go through with the wedding? He finds it hard to accept what has happened, despite being the one to get a blow job the night before the wedding. Whether the marriage will last isn't the issue here. Rogers just wants to make a point about how difficult it is to stay faithful to one person, when everybody around him is doing a lot of f-king and jerking off.
Some salient points are made when Rogers and his best friend Ward Steven's discuss how many women they have slept with in their short lives. It doesn't surprise them that they have lost count, but the figure hovers somewhere in the triple digits. An interesting comparison is also made between a "Buck's Night" and a "Hen's Party". One party settles for an enormously obese stripper, whilst the other chooses a Don Juan impersonator. The film has a feel and look of a documentary, with amateurish angles and views to serve the style of movie.
This isn't a story about morals, but it does have a lot to say about choice of lifestyle. So after watching a lot of men my age chasing cheap thrills and meaningless relationships, made me feel relieved that I had chosen a life more ordinary.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews