Modern Collective (2010)

A deserved victory for Kai Neville and his crew as "Moder Collective" won a prize at the surfer poll awards

     What happens when a group of surf experimentalists goes on to take by surprise the entire surf community with what we can call one of the first post modern surf movies? The result could be something like Modern Collective, the tour de force of director Kai Neville.Just don´t forget his name because the wordclass camera work and editing makes this flick one of the best movies released last year.But it´s not only that, Kai is also a very good surfer, and only very good surfers can take surfing to the big screen with such intensity. Add to this list the fact that this is his debut as a director and things start getting even more promising.

    In my opinion Modern Collective is the perfect follow up to Taylor Steele´s Momentum generation. Neville and his fantastic crew (made entirely of enormously talented surfers such as Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith, Yadin Nicol, Dion Agius and Mitch Coleborn) took the responsability to show to everyone the style of their generation: an action packed surf were even the laws of gravity are being defied every minute.

Kai Neville began his career on Poor Specimen - yeah that´s right it´s Taylor Steele´s film company - and made various works as a backstage assistant for very solid movies such as Campaign and Stranger than Fiction. When he was given the opportunity to direct is first movie many believed it was too soon because Kai appeared to be inexperienced. The resusts came quickly after the release: mostly good critics from the majority of surf mags and winner of best movie at the surfer poll awards.

One last word to write about two things:

    The soundtrack is awesome. Ecletic, vibrant and deeply connected with the surf scenes.

    Craig Anderson´s session on the "extras section of the DVD is something out of everything I ever saw before. If you are not in the mood of watching the whole flick, just consider watching this particular surfer. It will blow your mind away.

Verdict: 8/10