Lost Atlas

It’s fair to say Kai Neville has changed the face of surf movies. His first feature-length surf film (away from the Taylor Steele umbrella) Modern Collective, was an eclectic mix of action-packed surfing, electronic music and had grommets fixated on it, months after the release. Kai then backed it up with Landscape Altered, a series of webisodes that documented some of the world’s best aerial surfers in out-of-season Indo conditions. These two projects launched Kai into the limelight, but in turn, added an insurmountable amount pressure on him to back it up with his latest release, Lost Atlas. We were lucky enough to get our mits on a copy so we decided to go through each aspect of the film.

The Surfing:
First off, this isn’t a sequel to Modern Collective. Lost Atlas is a separate entity that features more start-to-finish waves and mind-blowing combinations. This time around, it seems as if Kai was determined to break free from the foundation he built Modern Collective on; which was, to let the surfing do the talking. Despite the all-star cast, there were only two waves where I had to rewind and ask, “Did he really make that?” And – if you want to know – both of those were from Dusty Payne, who is the standout of the film. Overall, I think the performance bar has certainly been raised, but it’s nothing compared to what Mod Coll achieved.

A screen grab of Dusty and ‘the air.’

The Surfers:
Kai made a good move by adding a bunch of fresh faces to the team: Owen Wright, Julian Wilson, Wade Goodall and a slew of youngsters like Andrew Doheny, John-John Florence and Kolohe Andino give the film a breath of fresh air. Of course, the original cast of Mod Coll also make their sophomore appearances. Each surfer has their moments, but not quite as often as Dusty Payne. The kid from Maui surfs like no other surfer; doing shit like turning a straight air into an air-reverse at the very last second without a care in the world. John-John Florence takes the cake behind Dusty with a handful of corked rotations and rodeos.

The Music:
While the music in Mod Coll wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I found that it complimented the energy and flair that was on the screen. Lost Atlas takes a leap in the complete opposite direction with lo-fi, chill-wave being the genre of choice. As good as Connan Mockasin and Washed Out are (both are on the Lost Atlas soundtrack), they don’t seem to bring the energy that the surfing demands. At one stage during the film, I found the music wasn’t engaging enough, so I opted to sit and watch the section in silence. I’m not entirely sure where Kai wanted to take the audience with these beats, but I surely missed the boat.

Ryan Callinan making is debut in Lost Atlas.

The Locations:
Kai has always been applauded for his choice of locations. Remember the Reunion Island sessions in Mod Coll? Well there’s a number of those in Lost Atlas especially a punchy little left wedge that Dion, Craig and Owen tear to bits. I found that these exotic locations were the only thing in the film enticing me to surf.

The Lifestyle:
If you’re expecting smoke machines, laser beams and another glass triangle guess again. Lost Atlas aims at capturing the essence of a surf trip through short snippets of the cast talking shit. Dusty writes off women’s surfing, Dane and Jordy nail a journalist with bad breath and Dion gets mobbed by a drunk American. It’s these little vox pops that make the film interesting and give it substance.