Movie review - Absinthe Films "Futureproof"
On the strength of last years Absinthe release "Pop" (10/10 must have film) I threw down some of my limited ski/board DVD funds for this years version, "Futureproof". Futureproof is supposed to refer to the things about snowboarding that will never lose their impact due to time.
Justin Hostynek has always focused his films more on big mountain freestyle than jibs, cheese wedges, and rails and the end-result is usually more artsy than most ski porn. To me, last year's "Pop" was kind of revolutionary... starting with Travis and Romain destroying Chad's Gap, it turned out to be one of the finer snowboard movies in recent times....fantastic footage, smooth editing, a cool soundtrack. In comparison, "Futureproof" falls a little short of "Pop", but still delivers some fine moments.
the crew of talent is there....Ruf, Nyvelt, Amhvet, de Marchi, Muller
the locations...Haines, Hokkaido, the Bird, etc
Big mountain freestyle is growing up and the progression, while still amazing to watch, does not seem to have the impact it did when you first started seeing guys spin multiple rotations off of spines. Sure, the moves these riders are doing are incredible...maybe the feeling isn't captured as intensely in this film as it might have.
But it's all there. 540's off steep spines in AK, major sluff/slide activity, sick spine action from Yannick Ahmvet in AK, major cheese wedge booter spins, etc. Hostynek is certainly not short on riding talent.
While there thankfully isn't a single rap-metal song in the movie, Hostynek takes some chances on this soundtrack that don't always pay off. Gigi Ruf's opening segment song is Nina Simone....there is an intensity to the song that you can feel with the jazz track, but it doesn't exactly jive with the AK footage. The track has a lot of feeling, but it doesn't really gel. There are a few more downtempo tracks in the film that just ended up making me feel detached from the action on the screen.
The editing and the artistic vision weren't as unified as last year. A bit more choppy, disinterested feeling. Like you were being shown a lot of different riders and segments, but without the feeling that they were building on each other. And there were funny little animations that came on the screen during the movie....kind of like the logos that network TV and cable have taken to showing in the bottom corner of the screen. Cool, i guess.
The Hokkaido segment had some nice editing work in the beginning....stuff that you'd see in an art film and such...and some amazing pillow drops, too. Makes me want to go there to ride pow.
So overall I'm kind of ambivalent about the flick. I kind of wanted to return it to the store because there really wasn't anything striking about it. Sure, amazing progression and endless talent, but still...something held this one back from greatness.
I'm giving Futureproof a 6/10 as compared to "Pop"s 10/10.
