Having somehow failed to ever watch
Point Break--but having osmosed that it was incredibly homoerotic and also that at some point Keanu Reeves would fire his gun in the air and go, "Ahhh!" (per
Hot Fuzz)--I did an online watch party of it last night with
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rachelmanija.
It was part two of a Kathryn Bigelow double feature: The day before, we'd watched the great
Near Dark, an unconventional vampire-as-ragged-serial-killer-clan movie which feels like a '70s film in its outlaw sensibilities, grit, almost mythic cinematography.
Point Break, on the other hand, defies description. It's a riveting combination of cheesiness, transcendental dumbness, terrific camerawork, female gaze, and sheer weirdness.
Part of its baffling nature is due to Keanu Reeves. I love Reeves, and while he has a select range, he can be great in certain movies:
Bill and Ted, My Own Private Idaho, The Matrix, Always Be My Maybe, etc. But here, as a kind of hotshot young FBI agent who sometimes Has Deep Thoughts, he's unintentionally hilarious. At various points, his love interest has to tell us what expression he has on his face and what it's supposed to mean, as if she's doing his acting for him. But it's okay, honestly, because he's mostly playing off Gary Busey, who is working at Maximum Busey, and Patrick Swayze, who is supposed to come off deeply philosophical and in tune with the universe. So everybody is working in an exceptionally strange mode, either miscast or way too intense.
But after a while, everything is so weird that it almost forms its own cohesive reality. (To the point where Rachel and I decided the only way all this made sense was if it was actually happening on an alien planet.) The hero's name is Johnny Utah. Half his conversations with his partner are textbook cop movie cliches delivered in a way that somehow makes them feel straight out of
Schizopolis: "Generic greeting!" "Generic greeting returned!" Or, alternately, also straight out of
Schizopolis: "Nose army. Beef diaper?" Because the dialogue in this movie can only be described via samples:
- "This is for little rubber people who don't shave yet."
- "They only live to get radical. They don't have any real understanding of the sea."
- "Speak into the microphone, squidbrain."
- "There's a new thing called radar! Maybe you've heard of it!"
- Describing people who have fallen from a height as turning into "meat waffles."
The actual plot--chockfull of spoilers--boils down to Johnny Utah and his partner investigating a string of highly successful bank robberies perpetrated by guys who wear rubber President masks. His partner has a theory, based on some wax residue, tan lines, and scheduling, that they're surfers, so on his own time, Johnny Utah learns how to surf so he can look like a beach insider. He gets instructions from a woman named Tyler, who becomes his lover. (Tyler is understandably upset when she finds out he's an undercover FBI agent and that everything he told her, including a tragic backstory with dead parents, was bullshit.) Tyler's ex, Patrick Swayze's Bodhi (short for Bodhisattva because "he's a seeker"), becomes Johnny's BFF and inducts him into the surfing subculture. They also have an adorably awkward scene where Bodhi saves him and walks him back to his car and they do that whole awkward, "Okay, this is me," "Um, I'm having a couple people over tonight, if you want to hang out?" first date negotiation.
Johnny briefly thinks the robbers are some neo-Nazi surfers, but actually, unsurprisingly, it's Bodhi and his friends. Johnny chases after them and, recognizing Bodhi's eyes through his mask, can't bear to shoot him. The next day, he thinks it's a smart idea to get in a car with guys he just chased down and shot at yesterday. THEY were wearing masks, Johnny! YOU weren't! They take him skydiving--not to kill him, but to
shoehorn in another beautifully shot action scene distract him while someone kidnaps Tyler and holds her to ensure Johnny's cooperation. Johnny is forced to participate in the robbery and almost gets arrested, but his partner breaks all the rules to help him go catch Bodhi. Bodhi shoots the partner and gets on the plane; Johnny follows him and jumps out of the plane with him, free-falling until he can catch up with Bodhi and wrestle him in midair. But when they land, he can't arrest him, because then he doesn't get Tyler back.
It's okay, though, because later he manages to track Bodhi down to where a cyclone is producing epic surfing, and he arrests him and then uncuffs him to let him catch his last wave, knowing it will kill him. Bodhi dies. Johnny dramatically hurls his badge into the sea, which is a relief because this guy shouldn't really be an FBI agent anyway.
Anyway, everyone should watch this if they haven't already. It's silly and senseless and beautiful to look at, and Keanu Reeves fires his gun in the air and goes, "Ahhhh!"
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