directed by Chris Malloy
It’s a dirt bag’s best fantasy come true, and surfer Chris
Malloy doesn’t try to deviate from the earnest style that makes his other docs
so watchable. Malloy (the bearded, stoic searcher in 180o ) is the
kind of surfer we romanticize: like Bodi in Point Break, minus the felonious
behavior and band of criminal morons, and 180o seeks to convey that
searcher’s sense with a no frills sincerity that blends well with his
simplistic directorial approach. The doc follows Jeff Johnson as he seeks to
re-tramp the trip his heroes took in 1968. The heroes in question are Yvon
Chouinard and Doug Tompkins (all you outdoorsy types should recognize those
names), and the trip refers to the journey the pair made to Patagonia, a
journey that came to define the course of both their lives forever. The locations
and scenery alone make this film worth watching, and any film with a bunch of
Mason Jennings songs is tops in my book. 180o South doesn’t say
anything new, but fans of such films as Riding Giants or Into the Wild (if you
are anything like me) never tire of hearing the message retold against a new
backdrop. Films like this always strike the same chord of melancholy and
longing I feel for something that I cannot even articulate, and difference
between 180o South and other, more powerful docs slash films, is
that Malloy is still struggling with the possibility that he actually can
articulate this feeling.
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