Ocean Tribe - Cavalcando l'oceano

This film has a lot to recommend it: buddies examining what friendship really means, great location filming, surfing, dolphins, even exotic rituals. Oh yeah, there's a life and death struggle too.

Ocean Tribe takes a concept that could have become a cliched road trip and gives it real depth and warmth. The basic plot is simple enough: Bob has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Noah (Gregg Rainwater) assembles the old group of high school buddies and they set out to give their friend one more grand surfing adventure. And somewhere along the way, they all discover more about their own strengths and weaknesses, and about what their friendship really means.

This movie is far and away better than a lot of what makes it to the screen these days. It's a shame it's not even available on video in the U.S. (I had to get the DVD from Italy -- it's available there and in Japan.)