SURFWISE [R]
review by Robert Newton

In a way that HBO’s Shakespearean head-scratcher “John From Cincinnati” failed to capture the mysticism of surfing, HDNet’s portrait of a boarding family catches that wave and rides it all the way to shore (and yes, we used a surfing metaphor in a shameless attempt to become more blurbworthy).

The Paskowitz family — father Dorian “Doc,” mother Juliet, eight boys and one girl — became legends of the sport. This was due not only to the sheer number of them dominating competitions wherever their 24-foot camper trailer would take them, but their love for it and perseverance bred into them from birth by their unconventional Dad made them shine, too. The senior Paskowitz had rejected the cozy life of a Jewish post-War doctor, adopting a life in the froth after two failed marriages and an existential reckoning. An educated and principled man, he and Juliet home-schooled all their children, their nomadic beach life being their most regular classroom. It all seemed life the perfect off-the-grid life.

Writer-director Doug Pray (Scratch) does such a great job making that life seem enviable and beyond reproach. Then, however, he skillfully lets the cracks start to show, and Doc’s utopian vision starts to collapse. While the reaction from the many surf legends past and present remains consistently one of awe, others closest to the family — and of course, Pasko’s own passel — dishes the most intimately.

Pray smartly illustrates the dysfunction when he recounts the kids defying their father’s rigid, cult-like grip and leaving the nest. He gives us metered, alternate glimpses into Doc’s successes and failures; the kids’ immense skill, passion and personality…and their complete lack of marketable job skills paired with an education that wouldn’t even get them into a third-rate community college. He gives us the glory of Doc’s vision for the ideal life, and laments the tragedy of its flawed execution, but most importantly, he makes us care about this colorful clan of beach bums.

Ultimately, Pray’s look under the magnifying glass identifies all that is gorgeous and ghastly in this one family, making it a means of comparison to any family anywhere, and he does it in an even-handed way that neither condones or condemns. One of the boys sums it up best when he says, “I’d rather have a flawed family than no family at all.”•••

Robert Newton is the editor of Worcester Movies.