neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Blue Crush
	John Stockwell Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, Matthew Davis, Sanoe Lake, Mika Boorem, Faizon Love 2002		With its four nubile gals rooming together in Hawaii and cavorting by the Pacific to the pop music of the day, "Blue Crush" could've been an update of a '60s "Beach Party" movie. But it takes another strain of '60s cinema, the surfing documentary (e.g. "The Endless Summer"), and gives it a female-empowerment twist. Any fears that "Blue Crush" is actually "Surfer Girls Gone Wild" are allayed by its terse, colloquial dialogue and its gasp-inducing cinematography of surfers in action. Based on a magazine article about young women who work as resort-hotel maids when they aren't "shooting the curl," the script trails skilled wave-rider Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) as she tries to raise her little sister, surfs with friends (Michelle Rodriguez, Sanoe Lake) and prepares to conquer the deadly Banzai Pipeline in competition. A romance subplot is a wipeout: Anne Marie may forgo the championship after she goes gaga for a pro quarterback visiting Oahu. But the thrilling you-are-there-on-the-board scenes make this worth the ride.