Absinthe’s Nowhere: I’ve enjoyed this movie, as you come to expect with Absinthe, it’s full of top notch shredding and some brilliant sections. But I havne’t been wowed by it. To me, Absinthe have shown better productions in the past. Read on for some of the particulars…
Standout parts
Wolfgang opens things up with what is becoming a trademark, awesome no boarding. He’s taking that binding-less board to some proper backcountry terrain, nice lines, good air, grabs, one footers, some nice 180s and a heelflip… it’s so sick. I just want to see more of that.
Dan Brisse has some insane tricks. Nice style, a jam packed, varied section. Huge front boards, big, smooth backcountry hits and nice filming throughout. Perhaps the most impressive bits are from the urban scene. You see Dan over-shooting some of the landings; that’s because the gaps in this section are the type of gaps you definitley don’t want to come up short on.
– I’m not that fussed about the direction that urban snowboarding is going, take it or leave it for me; but you can’t deny that it’s gnarly, skillful and inventive. These guys are pushing it all the time. On that note, Cale Zima has another vaired section with a strong urban influence. I like this guys style and approach, despite the skinny jeans and crazy tune. Kinda raw.
Annie Boulanger & Marie-France Roy continue to hold it down for the women, and continue to push hard, shredding the backcountry. They get better each year: gnarly lines, bigger, smoother air – sick moves. I’d like to see more of their riding, and more of their story in the Flipside series.
What didn’t I like?
Gigi Ruf – one of my favourtie snowboarders, but I just didn’t connect with his section. His first few clips are class, but i just didn’t feel it after that.
It was a similar reaction to Nico Muller. His riding in the BC backcountry with Jake was cool, but it came across as them just playing, rather than his best. The section later with Fredi K and JP has some awesome riding and shots – but it just didn’t grab me.
There’s a good song for Jules Reymond and Bjorn Leines, and good riding too. But when can I see more of Jules Reymond? I like his riding style a lot, but he hasn’t put together enough of a section for me, since More.
Favourite bits
Jake Blauvelt has an excellent section, just riding backcountry terrain, making it look natural; his opening line is sick, probably my favourtie from the film. I hear he’s been hanging out more with Nicolas Muller – it shows, awesome riding with clever lines, adapting to the terrain. Plus a chilled tune that makes you bob you head…
The best section for me belongs to Bode Merrill. This guy can snowboard, really good riding and such a variety of moves, lines and filming. Love the song, love his selection of tricks… there’s that backside rodeo to front-board, 270 out (insane), a sweet backcountry handplant and a collection of one footers. Awesome song also, it works prefectly with a section that’s edited so well – THAT’s what absinthe is to me.
Nowhere’s soundtrack
The soundtrack is a mix of funky, chilled and playfull songs; not that I’m a music critic. It works well throughout, mostly. DCP’s part has a good tune, and I probably should have mentioned his riding, there’s a sick method in there.
Taka Nakai opens a shared-section with a cool song; his part is short, but super smooth riding. Romain goes huge. JP Solberg closes that bit out with some floaty powder-jibbing tree action. Good shots.
Overall
Am I being over critical? This film has lots of good locations, the riding is all very good, the standard is so high and if you’re into it, they’re really pushing urban stuff. I just don’t want to say it’s awesome…
I watch it again and I think: yeah that was great riding, that was a good location, nice shots there; but it’s just missing something to make it “wow” throughout. I’m always comparing Absinthe’s latest production with the best from their previous movies, maybe that’s unfair?
Did they miss out on some of their ground-breaking filming techniques? With earlier Absinthe flicks I’ve felt that the whole thing really flowed, from one section that was brilliantly put together to the next. Nowhere has top notch snowboarding, but it feels more like one of the other films.
I want to say that I love this film, but overall I’m going for “good, but not great”. That said, I paid $5 for it from iTunes, at that price it’s a no brainer. However it won’t quite land a spot as one of the best snowboarding documentaries just yet.