I cannot stop watching the trailer for The Surfer,听the new psychological thriller starring Nicolas Cage.

The preview went up on YouTube on Wednesday, February 26, and by Monday, March 3, it had generated 1.2 million views. I probably account for one-quarter of those, as I’ve been mindlessly rewatching it again and again, soaking in every hilarious and eye-popping frame.

What’s not to love? There’s surfing. There are hyper-agro Australian surfer dudes. There are strong undercurrents of paranoia, shamanism, and even cult worship. And of course there’s Nicolas Cage, clad in a neoprene wetsuit, : freaking out, melting down, and acting like a lunatic. The Surfer appears to be a meme reservoir of the zany, over-the-top acting we’ve come to expect from the Academy Award-winning actor over the past decade or so.

Cage screams, eye-bulges, and stares into the camera, mouth agape. He also wields a tire iron like a club, bludgeons a bad guy with a signpost, and forces another one to eat a dead rat while screaming “EAT THE RAT!” The trailer makes The Surfer appear to be equal parts Wicker Man (““) and . Someday, we may all text Nicolas Cage GIFs from this crazy movie to one another.

The trailer for The Surfer does kinda sorta tell a story, too, and it’s one that’s laid out in the promotional copy that accompanies the film.

A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But his desire to hit the waves is thwarted by a group of locals whose mantra is 鈥渄on鈥檛 live here, don鈥檛 surf here.鈥� Humiliated and angry, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising in concert with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him to his breaking point.听

I assume that the breaking point here is assault with a rodent.

But in truth I hope there’s more to The Surfer than just Nicolas Cage memes and a story of dad-revenge. It’s been 66 years since Gidget, and over the decades, Hollywood’s portrayal of surfing has occasionally been subverted and re-examined. Even the 1991 blockbuster Point Break听was vaguely subversive by portraying its hunky surfers as adrenaline-addicted bank robbers. I think that the surfing subgenre is ready to be tinkered with again.

The Surfer trailer drops breadcrumbs that it may attempt to do this. It touches on some of the familiar tropes found in mainstream portrayals of surfing on TV and in movies. The film is directed by Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who made his feature debut with the 2019 sci-fi thriller Vivarium, which I have not seen but apparently .

The Surfer trailer opens with a Cage voiceover. “You can’t stop a wave. Born in a storm, way out to sea, it’s pure energy. And it’s all building to this breaking point.” This is the familiar mumbo jumbo that Hollywood loves to attach to surfing, to highlight the metaphysical connection that surfers have to the waves, the ocean, and maybe even the cosmos. Yeah鈥攕tuff that normies like you and me will never truly understand.

Think Patrick Swaze’s Bodhi from 听saying, “Surfing鈥檚 the source. Can change your life. Swear to God.” Or the opening scene of the 2007 HBO show John from Cincinnati,听where Bruce Greenwood mysteriously levitates above the beach.

The next trope, of course, is the whole localism thing. In The Surfer trailer, neighborhood Aussies terrorize Cage by vandalizing his car, stealing his board, and potentially forcing him slurp an unidentified liquid off of the parking lot. In some scenes, the antagonists appear more like cult worshippers than buddies from the local break. Their antics are a few notches more menacing than that of bad guys (and real-life surf celebrities) Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez in the 1987 cult favorite .听But it’s also in-line with the surfing scene in , where the from a car owned by an out-of-towner and drop it into the ocean.

And finally there’s the activity of surfing itself: magical and carefree, riding a pristine wave along the sun-dappled coastline. It’s what Nicolas Cage’s character hopes to pass down to his son鈥攚ell, prior to getting tangled up with all of the violence, fear, and loathing.

How will these traditional tropes mix with paranoia, cult worship, and rat eating? We will have to see. The Surfer hits theaters on May 1. I intend to be there on opening night. I’ll leave my wetsuit at home.

The post What the Heck Is Going on in Nicolas Cage鈥檚 New Film 鈥橳he Surfer?鈥� appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It鈥檚 hard to beat old-school summer camping: 鈥攕鈥檓ores over the campfire, fireside chats, and the Milky Way overhead. But from time to time it鈥檚 nice to bring in a little luxury. Enter the outdoor movie night. Whether you鈥檙e setting up at a traditional camping site, in your backyard, or on the side of a tricked-out van in the middle of the desert, these projectors and accessories offer a seamless blend between next-level theater entertainment and the great outdoors.

Over the past month, we tested a handful of projectors and accessories while camping from my van, from a tent, and in a controlled, indoor space to find the best combinations of value, picture quality, sound, durability, portability, and ease of use. Below you鈥檒l find four projectors that performed the best, along with the best accessories to go with them.

At a Glance

• Best Overall:
• Best Battery Life:
• Most Camp-Friendly:
• Most Compact:
• Best Stand-Alone Outdoor Screen:

If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Best Overall

XGIMI Halo+

Pros and Cons
鈯� Adjustable angle
鈯� Good autofocus and keystone correction
鈯� High-quality image and sound
鈯� Battery life isn’t great and is hard to measure
鈯� No handle or carry features
鈯� Expensive

XGIMI鈥檚 Halo+ stood out thanks to its brightness capability of 700 ISO lumens and quality color and contrast settings. While plugged into a power source, the Halo+ offered the most vivid and detailed picture of all the projectors we tested and allowed us to adjust the picture settings to our needs. When on battery power, the image was notably dimmer but kept the vivid color and sharp lines.

Out of the box, the projector set up easily with Android TV (though it did take a few more minutes with an iPhone rather than Android) and adjusted to whatever platform we projected onto (like a screen, sheet, wall, or van) thanks to its auto focus and keystone correction. Along with the Android TV, it offers other ways to project content including HDMI, Chromecast, and Bluetooth screen mirroring.

On the downside, the Android TV does not directly support Netflix, so to access that platform you鈥檒l need to use an app workaround or HDMI cable. Plus, the Halo+ was the only projector that struggled to hold a charge for a full-length film, so having an extension cord and power source available would ensure an uninterrupted experience.

Best for Netflix-Lovers

Nebula Mars 3 Air GTV Projector

Pros and Cons
鈯� Charges quickly
鈯� Easy-to-read battery meter
鈯� Responsive remote
鈯� Exceptional internal sound
鈯� Netflix licensed
鈯� Auto keystone correction hurts more than helps the display

The Mars 3 Air GTV projector is the dream for anyone who primarily uses Netflix while streaming. The Google TV projector has all your favorite streaming and game apps with built-in Netflix (which Android TVs do not always support) and has an easy-to-use, responsive remote with Google Assistant. The only challenge we found with the Mars 3 Air was the projector鈥檚 auto keystone correction, which regularly miscalculated, completely skewed the picture quality, and typically required manual setting. However, this issue was easily solved by switching off the auto keystone correction.

With that setting fixed, the rest of the experience was everything we could hope for, offering picture and audio quality that rivals the Halo+. Plus, the internal battery easily lasted the equivalent of a full movie (approximately six 20-minute episodes of Young Sheldon) and LED battery status lights on the top made it easy to know when we needed to recharge.

Most Camp-Friendly

BenQ GS50

Pros and Cons
鈯� Includes travel-friendly carry case
鈯� Splash and drop protections
鈯� Display isn’t as crisp or bright as some other projectors
鈯� Pricey

If you鈥檒l be car camping or traveling, BenQ鈥檚 GS50 is the clear winner thanks to its impressive durability features and an included carrying bag. This sleek, eye-catching projector was the heaviest of the test, but it鈥檚 splash and drop-resistant and has plenty of internal battery for a full-length movie. We used it during a very misty evening in Fallbrook, California where everything got a little damp and, the projector had no issues.

Admittedly, while the brightness rating is 500 ANSI lumens (which is on par with the other projectors), we couldn鈥檛 get the GS50鈥檚 picture quality to be quite as crisp or vivid as others鈥攖hough it was still plenty satisfactory.

Most Compact

Nebula Capsule 3 GTV

Pros and Cons
鈯� Netflix licensed
鈯� Quality picture
鈯� Compact and portable
鈯� Easily charges with external battery through USB or USB-C
鈯� Slightly worse brightness capability than others
鈯� Auto keystone correction miscalculates
鈯� Set-up was challenging

The Capsule 3 GTV offers a superb combination of high-quality projection and compact portability. Smaller than a Nalgene bottle, the Capsule 3 GTV looks more like a portable Bluetooth speaker than it does a projector (in fact, it does have a Bluetooth speaker setting), but it packs a powerful punch with 200 ANSI lumens and crisp picture quality similar to the larger Mars 3 Air. The battery is meant to last a full 120 minutes, but even if you run low, the Capsule 3 GTV uses a USB-C to charge (instead of a proprietary mechanism), so you can easily use an external power bank for extra juice. Plus, the Google TV comes with built-in Netflix.

Unfortunately, the auto keystone correction was similar to the Mars 3 Air, which meant the picture would not accurately correct and we had to turn the feature off and manually set the frame. The system also required logging into a Google account before using most of the features, which proved challenging at the campsite.

Best Stand-Alone Outdoor Screen

Towond 120 inch Portable Projector Screen

Pros and Cons
鈯� Stand-alone capability
鈯� Stake-down lines to combat wind
鈯� Relatively easy to set up and take down
鈯� Doesn’t stand up amazingly to stronger breezes
鈯� Set-up requires two people

For an outdoor screen that鈥檚 durable, affordable, portable, and easy to set up, the Towond Portable Projector Screen covers all the bases. The screen stand breaks down like tent poles and stores in a convenient carry bag with the wrinkle-free polyester screen material. Though we needed two people, the screen was easy to set up and take down thanks to a channel for the top crossbar and velcro straps that attach to the side poles for a smooth viewing platform.

Any stand-alone projector screen acts like a giant sail when any wayward breeze comes through, and the Towond was no exception. Even with stakes, tie-down lines, and weights on the tripod legs, the screen struggled to stay upright at a breezy campsite鈥攖hough we were able to keep it steady by tying it between two trees.

Accessories

While not absolute necessities, a few additional tools may improve your outdoor movie experience.

• Queen Flat Sheet: If you don鈥檛 want to spend the money on a screen and don鈥檛 have a good platform like a van to project your film onto, you can always use a plain queen flat sheet you have in your house. We tested the ($9.50) from Target, and found that though it was a little more wrinkled than the Towond screen, it did the trick. The main downfall with this option is since the sheet is not explicitly meant for this purpose, you may have to improvise some clips, magnets, and string to rig it up.
• A tripod or projector stand: In a pinch, you can adjust your projector angle and position with some strategic books, rocks, or other wedge-type space holders, but a stand will ensure you get the best projector positioning every time. All the projectors on this list have a screw-in attachment that鈥檚 compatible with a standard camera tripod or projector stand. For this testing, I used a ($60), which struggled with the extra 1.4 pounds of the BenQ GS50, but otherwise did the trick.
• Bluetooth speaker: The projector speakers worked well enough on their own for small groups, but if you鈥檙e screening for a larger audience, a separate bluetooth speaker would be helpful. All the projectors above are Bluetooth compatible so you can connect your favorite Bluetooth speaker (or wireless headphones if it鈥檚 just you).
• Laptop: All the featured projectors have downloaded operating systems that act like any smart TV so all you really need to play content is an internet connection. However, if you鈥檙e off the grid, don鈥檛 forget to bring a laptop or other device with the downloaded movie.

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You鈥檙e never too old to pick up a new outdoor sport. Just ask actor Matthew Modine.

Modine, of Full Metal Jacket and听Stranger Things fame, recently began road cycling in his mid-sixties. This was no accidental hobby: he started biking for his starring role in a new Hard Miles, which is in theaters now.

The film follows the true story of a Colorado social worker named Greg Townsend, played by Modine, who works with troubled teenagers at a medium-security correctional school. Townsend has an idea: take a select group of kids on a 1,000-mile bike ride from Denver to the Grand Canyon, and let the punishing journey teach them lessons on personal strength and toughness. The film is inspired by a written by听国产吃瓜黑料听contributor Tracy Ross.

To truly capture Townsend鈥檚 character, Modine had to transform himself into a Spandex-wearing, clipless pedals-using, hardcore cyclist. The transition had plenty of bumps and bruises. We caught up with Modine to talk about becoming what he calls a 鈥淟ycra bicyclist鈥� for the role.

OUTSIDE:听It sounds like you were not a hardcore cyclist before this film.听
MATTHEW MODINE: I wasn’t what you’d call a “Lycra bicyclist.” The biggest ride I would do is from Greenwich Village to Yankee Stadium. It’s about seven miles and you go through Central Park into Harlem and through the Bronx, and after a game on a nice summer night after you’ve had some beers you get to ride home. It’s magical. So no, the peloton and Lycra and helmet stuff鈥擨 wasn’t familiar with that until I made this film. The biggest challenge was locking your feet into the pedals. That was terrifying to me. But you have to learn to become one with the bicycle. You don’t just push down on the pedals, you pull up on them as well. It was a different experience.

Tell us about your first experiences as a “Lycra bicyclist” on the shoot.
The best example of this being a painful transition happened on day one of filming our ride. We were leaving the school to begin the journey from Denver to the Grand Canyon and I was clipped into my bicycle and was riding in circles. I couldn’t yet balance in a stationary position, and the director asked me a question. I stopped and couldn’t get my foot out of the clip and fell over and landed on a metal rail. I hit my forearm and thought I broke it. I had a black and blue arm for the rest of the shoot. The black sleeves I’m wearing in the filmi are covering up huge bruises. If I had broken my arm it would have required a major rewrite to the script.

What elements of this story appealed to you and attracted you to the film?
The film’s central ideas appealed to me because we live in this day and age of cancel culture. Troubled youth鈥攌ids between 14 and 17 years old鈥攕ometimes make stupid mistakes and get in a lot of trouble, and sometimes they end up in reform school. I had a brother鈥擨’m the youngest of seven鈥攁nd he ended up in reform school. The way society is today is people continue to be punished, even though they’ve tried to reform themselves. The root of the word penitentiary is penance鈥攜ou serve your penance and you rehabilitate yourself and you get on with your life. So, what Greg Townsend is doing is helping these kids realize that they’ve made mistakes and realize that they can move on from the setbacks. They learn to build their own bicycle and take pride in what they’ve created, and then they ride from Denver to the Grand Canyon. Greg pulls the blinders off of them so they can see that the world is bigger than the troubled home they grew up in or the gang they came from. They can get on with their lives through a difficult period of the teenaged years. There but for the grace of God go I, as the saying goes. We all made stupid mistakes鈥攋ust some of us got caught and others of us didn’t. I think it’s important for us to help those who have slipped and to give them an opportunity to return to society.

You spent time with the real Greg Townsend. What about his personality appealed to you?
The real Greg Townsend was with us every step of the way, and I appreciated his sense of humor and optimism. I made this film about wrestling called Vision Quest in 1985 that he loves. Every wrestler learns that you’re only as good as you’re willing to push yourself. I think that when you go on those long bicycle ride, pushing yourself up a mountain, the demons are exposed. And that’s what happened to these kids鈥攖he big rides helped them overcome the monsters inside of them to realize their strength. That is super important, and it was something Greg and I talked about.

So, did you fully convert to becoming a Lycra-wearing bicyclist?
Let’s just say I have an appreciation for the sport that I didn’t have before. I don’t see pelotons in my future, but I do have respect for those who do the sport.

This interview was edited for length.听

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Movies don鈥檛 get much better than surfer-heist popcorn flick Point Break (1991). Movies don鈥檛 really get much worse than surfer-heist popcorn flick Point Break (2015). What happened? Each week on the movie and culture podcast Captive Audience, regular 国产吃瓜黑料 contributor Alex Ward and his co-hosts break down a classic film that one of them hasn鈥檛 seen. This week, they invited 国产吃瓜黑料 Podcast host Peter Frick-Wright to discuss the Keanu Reeves cult classic, and the debacle that is the remake.

The post Breaking Down 鈥楶oint Break鈥� appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

These days, everyone鈥檚 talking about Barbie鈥攂oth the film and the toy鈥攊ncluding climate activists. One group called even took the opportunity to take a swing at toy maker Mattel and the entire plastics industry. In a bizarre and well-orchestrated hoax, actress Daryl Hannah and the group put out a legit looking video titled Plastic Free with Daryl Hannah. It turns out, the message the video promotes is totally fake.

Filmed on a beach with crashing surf with her signature blond locks flowing in the ocean breeze, Hannah talks earnestly about snorkeling on a remote reef and finding a barnacle encrusted Barbie doll. Implying that she is a Mattel ambassador, Hannah then announces that by 2030 all toys made by the company will be plastic-free. Barbie dolls, she states, will all be manufactured from compostable materials, like mushrooms, algae, and rice. 鈥淢attel will also support a federal ban on all plastics in kids toys and on single use plastics,鈥� Hannah says in the video.

The video also touts that to celebrate this 鈥渋ncredible shift,鈥� Mattel will launch a new line of eco-warrior Barbies, commemorating environmental heroes like activist Greta Thunberg, Nemonte Nenquimo, and Julia Butterfly Hill.

The campaign is convincing, but alas, it鈥檚 a total sham鈥攁 well-orchestrated one, I may add. In addition to the video featuring the Splash star, Barbie Liberation Organization also pushed out a phony press release that was published on Mattel letterhead announcing the news. The document included fabricated quotes from Mattel executives, and it linked to several fake Mattel websites touting the news, .

News organizations around the country, including The Washington Times, People, and MarketWatch.com took the bait and published articles based on the phony information, only to pull them down hours later after the truth was exposed.

On Tuesday, August 1, Barbie Liberation Organization released a taped admitting that the whole thing was a satire. 鈥淭his is a joke, but a very serious joke,鈥� says Hannah in the video. 鈥淢attel is not going plastic-free. But they should, and I鈥檇 venture to say that they could, seeing that the Fortune 500 company is on track to gross about a billion dollars from the Barbie film alone. So why not? it would be so great. Mattel, it鈥檚 what everyone wants to hear. You could take the lead. But this isn’t just about Mattel. It鈥檚 about everything. Barbie just happens to be a good place to start because Barbie is the star of this summer鈥檚 blockbuster and she鈥檚 going through a cultural metamorphosis.鈥�

Hannah then addresses the the plastic and petrochemical industry: 鈥淲e need to stop killing our planet with plastics and fossil fuels,鈥� she says.

The Barbie Hoax鈥檚 Goal

Barbie Liberation Organization wasn鈥檛 the only environmental group to address plastic pollution听in the wake of the 叠补谤产颈别鈥檚 popularity. Just hours before the hoax hit airwaves, a group called Plastic Pollution Coalition put out an Instagram and about the dangers of plastic toys.听鈥淧lastic-free Barbie isn鈥檛 real, but plastic pollution is very real,鈥� says Erica Cirino, communications manager of PPC. Like Hannah and the Barbie Liberation Organization, PPC saw an opportunity to capitalize on the Barbie craze. But it had no idea that its message would get amplified by this fake campaign.

鈥淭he goal of the hoax was to draw attention to our massive plastic problem by leveraging this cultural Barbie moment,鈥� says Cirino. PPC鈥檚 messaging was more straightforward, but Cirico says the hoax may be effective through what she calls 鈥渟ubversive action.鈥� Some activist groups use the strategy to trick the media to circulate their message in an ironic way. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not our tactic, but it can be effective in drawing attention to these issues,鈥� she says.

Both campaigns aim to get across what is essentially the same point: plastics and fossil fuels are Barbie-queing the planet. In my opinion, capitalizing on the huge cultural moment of Barbie was a pretty slick move. Additionally, using the toy industry as a way to address plastics consumption could be a way to reach parents. , according to the Yale Environmental Review. 鈥淜ids pick up toys with their hands and put them in their mouths,鈥� says Cirino. 鈥淚t’s easy to see how toxic chemicals can get in our children鈥檚 bodies, and they鈥檙e so vulnerable to them. We鈥檝e been playing with toxic toys since the 1950s.鈥�

As a whole, the great Barbie hoax of 2023 will likely be a positive development for environmental groups targeting plastic consumption. Plastics are ubiquitous, and they are sneakily found in products that you might not predict: our 鈥減lastic-free鈥� laundry pods and our biodegradable dog poop bags, for example. Plastics cannot be pinkwashed. 鈥淭hey are everlasting and polluting,鈥� says Cirino, 鈥渁nd this media attention around Barbie represents a wider opportunity to confront this urgent reality.鈥�

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At least half the fun of the Barbie movie is the brilliant costumes and satisfying set designs, featuring every shade of pink (just check out the photo above!). While we might not have Greta Gerwig and her team鈥檚 style and expertise when it comes to our wardrobes, fuchsia is the color of the summer and has even seeped听into the outdoor industry. Many have a love/hate relationship with the color鈥攆or a long time, it was the only color women could find in outdoor apparel and gear鈥攂ut we may be seeing a new era of pink. One that embraces femininity and also strength, one that is fun but also tough. Take a peek at our favorite Barbie-inspired outdoor gear of the summer.听

Birkenstock Arizona Essentials Eva in Beetroot Purple ($50)

Barbie may have had to choose between high heels and Birkenstocks in the movie, but you don鈥檛 have to make the same compromise. Made from EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate), a high-quality, light, and elastic material with great cushioning, these sandals are waterproof so they鈥檙e perfect for the beach, watering your garden, or for sweaty feet post-workout. Plus, they鈥檙e modeled after the cork originals, so you get to keep that classic Birkenstock style.

Baggu Fanny Pack in Extra Pink ($52)

Every Barbie needs a bag, so it might as well be durable, sustainable, and鈥攎ight I even say鈥攆ashionable. With two primary compartments and a zippered interior pocket, the Fanny Pack is great for storing your passport and snacks while traveling or keeping your phone and other essentials safe on the trail. Plus, all of Baggu鈥檚 nylon styles are made with recycled nylon filament yarn that was produced from pre-consumer waste. Hop on the hands-free bag trend with a company you can feel good about supporting.听

Youswim Poise High Waist Two Piece in Cosmic ($139)

Youswim has made waves in the swimsuit industry with its luxe, ribbed, and seamless fabric swimsuits that magically fit seven sizes in one. The suit听adapts to your body, even as it changes and grows. This particular style offers medium coverage in a perfect pink colorway. I鈥檝e owned a Youswim suit for a few years now and it鈥檚 the one I keep reaching for consistently. It鈥檚 comfortable, versatile, and sustainable. Youswim鈥檚 suits are made with European-sourced nylon and elastane and completely produced in England by their team鈥攏o sweatshops here.听

Submission Biodegradable Glitter in Pink ($25)

While you might not think of glitter as outdoor gear, it adds sparkle and silliness to long days in the backcountry and hot laps in the resort with friends. I鈥檓 a big-time glitter fan myself, and have been on the search for the best biodegradable and plastic-free option. This pink glitter from Submission may be the winner, with its base made with cellulose from eucalyptus trees instead of plastic. This material creates a beautiful sparkle, without the use of toxic ingredients, and feels softer on the skin than plastic glitter.听

Beach Sounds Speaker in Candy Pink ($65)

At first glance, you might think the Beach Sounds speaker was taken from the set of the Barbie Movie itself. This candy pink retro-inspired speaker is sand- and water-resistant, and the ideal size for any outdoor adventure (listening respectfully, of course). Take it to the beach, on a raft, or poolside. It鈥檚 easily portable, compatible with any smartphone or tablet, and connects to Bluetooth.

Outdoor Voice Exercise Dress in Retro Haze ($80)

You鈥檝e probably heard of the Outdoor Voices Exercise Dress and yes, the hype is absolutely real. As a proud owner of one, I do just about anything in it鈥攈ike, run, go to the gym, hot girl walks, and more. This Retro Haze color reminds me of my Barbie dolls I played with as a young girl. The Exercise Dress is flattering and also functional, with adjustable straps and a built-in shorts liner with sticky grippers on the inside hem to help them stay in place.听

Halfdays Nellie Packable Puffer Jacket in Peony ($195)

The Nellie Packable Puffer is the definition of fashionable and functional. The trendy, relaxed and oversized fit looks good year round鈥攚ear it alone or with layers underneath in the colder months. Made with a wind-resistant shell and a later of quilted insulation, this puffer cuts the wind while trapping warmth. It also features a back pocket for water bottle storage, and packs into itself once you鈥檝e heated up. Plus, this jacket is made with 45 percent recycled nylon, and insulated by 100 percent recycled PET bottles.听

Hoka Women鈥檚 Speedgoat 5 in Festival Fuchsia / Camellia ($155)

Hoka鈥檚 newly-revised Speedgoat is meant for hitting mountainous trails, with Vibram Megagrip rubber and five millimeter lugs for better grip on loose terrain. It鈥檚 got the same stack height and rocker profile as the previous version, but with a lighter midsole and a more durable body. You can rest assured that these shoes have been tried and tested鈥擪arl 鈥淪peedgoat鈥� Meltzer (who has won more 100-miler races than any other runner), launched his signature shoe in 2015, and has won many ultramarathons wearing his Speedgoats. And Hoka must鈥檝e gotten the Barbie memo, because this color fits with just about everything else on this list. Plus, the upper is made from 34 percent recycled materials. Happy Trails!

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Pippa Ehrlich told her story to producer Cat Jaffee for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I came off three years of making the film, and then into the crazy success of the film. Screenings and interviews at ten o’clock at night, two o’clock in the morning. I think things just got really out of control, and I had very little interest in doing work, because I was just too tired. It just felt too overwhelming. And your confidence takes a massive battering because things that were easy before become incredibly, incredibly difficult.

I’m a filmmaker and journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

I just love being in the water. And even as a little kid, my gran said that when I鈥檇 get stressed out and difficult to deal with, she just used to put me in the bath.

I spent three years of my life working on this film called My Octopus Teacher. It was not an easy concept to sell, because it’s the story of a man who befriends an octopus underwater in a kelp forest. He meets this little octopus and then, every single day, he goes back to the space that she lives in, and he spends time with her and he learns about her world.

While I was working on My Octopus Teacher, I was diving literally every single day for three or four years. Craig, who was the subject of the film and my co-collaborator, and I really made the film together on a very ordinary iMac.

I could start working at 8:00 AM and work until 2:00 AM very, very easily, and not even feel tired the next day. And that really was the main focus of my life, and it had become this incredible foundation that I’d built myself up on.

We never dreamed that the project would get that successful, and we were in no way prepared for what that success would mean. Suddenly, I found myself living on Zoom, going from interview to panel discussion, to talk, to online awards ceremony. I just started to live in this virtual Zoom space, all through COVID.

And then the whirlwind of flying to the Oscars. And eventually coming back from all of that and being deeply, deeply grateful that the film had resonated in the way that it had. But also feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed and totally and utterly burned out.

Whereas I was used to being able to look at the weather and say, OK, I’m gonna go diving at this time. The thing that had been a major priority for me suddenly dropped all the way to the back of the list. It feels like a level of exhaustion to the point where if I wrote one email, I’d have to go to bed for two or three hours afterwards.

If you are in a really, really bad space, then that’s what you will start to see in the world around you.

I remember going to the beach one day, it’s my favorite beach, but when we went out that day, the whole thing was just covered in noodles. Noodles are these little tiny, tiny pieces of plastic. Every plastic thing starts off as a noodle. Some ship had overturned in the ocean. For over a year, we had people sitting on the beach all over Cape Town collecting these noodles. Anyway, when you’re in a really bad head space, that’s the kind of thing you start to see more of.

And then this amazing opportunity materialized.

Craig, his wife Swati, and I were all invited to this incredible place. It’s a research station in the middle of nowhere in the Indian Ocean, on an island called D鈥橝rros. The research station is managed by the Save Our Seas Foundation. I got on my phone and called every single person that I had an appointment with and I just emptied out my entire diary.

You fly out from Mah茅, which is the capital of the Seychelles. You get in this tiny plane and you fly straight across the ocean. They’re these little tiny dots of islands underneath you. They have to run up and down and make sure that there are no giant tortoises on the airstrip because that’s obviously very dangerous for the plane and very dangerous for the tortoise. They’re like living dinosaurs, hundreds and hundreds of kilos.

The minute I set foot on that island, I just felt completely different. This place is so special because it’s been protected for a very long time, I think since the 鈥�70s, and it’s so remote that going to D鈥橝rros is like going back in time.

You are living in this marine Jurassic Park, and there are tornadoes of birds flying above your head. Giant frigate birds that look and sound like pterodactyls. Everything under the water and on the land and in the air is functioning in balance, the way that it would’ve been hundreds of years ago. You literally walk off the shore in D鈥橝rros, put your head under the sea in this perfect blue ocean, and you feel like you are in an animated movie about coral. There are not just one or two turtles, there are hundreds of turtles. Then you swim out a little bit further, and if you feel your skin starting to sting a bit, there’s plankton in the water, there’s a really good chance that they’ll be manta rays.

We actually went on a boat and there were literally about 15 huge manta rays feeding up and down and swimming around the boat. We jumped in the water. Then it started to rain. And it was like they just got so excited, and there is something really magical about being in the ocean when it’s raining. I could feel in the animals that they were equally excited. Just swerving around, and coming straight up, and watching me with one eye. Then moving their wingtip over the top of my head, and swirling underneath, and turning upside down, and showing me their belly. It was just this experience that reignited that sense of enthusiasm and excitement for life.

To be brought back to the core thing that motivates you, which is this deep love of nature, and knowledge that healthy places are really what we need for healthy people. If there could be more spaces like that on our planet, then that’s something that is worth waking up in the morning and working really, really hard to be part of.

When you come back from paradise, and you can’t just walk off the beach and swim with turtles and manta rays, you need something else that’s accessible. I started this morning ritual of waking up, and sitting there by myself, meditating and doing some breath work and listening to the birds. Just having this very, very calm moment at the start of my day.

It’s really hard to stop, and I think sometimes that’s why we burn ourselves out so badly. Because no matter how tired we are, the thought of stopping is just too terrifying. But finding just some quiet time in your day, every day, preferably in the morning, to just make sure that your heart and your mind are a reasonably centered space is something that everyone can do. Then when you go about your day and you make decisions from that place rather than from a really, really busy or stressed or overwhelmed place, you generally make much better decisions, and particularly decisions that are much better for you and your well-being.

Pippa Ehrlich is a journalist and filmmaker specializing in stories about conservation, science, and the relationship between people and the natural world. She is the co-director of My Octopus Teacher, South Africa’s first Netflix original documentary, and currently works for the Sea Change Project. You can learn about Pippa’s work at .

You can follow听The Daily Rally听on听,听,听, or wherever you like to listen. and to be featured on the show.

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Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi鈥檚 new film, 鈥榃ild Life,鈥� captures the saga of Doug and Kristine Tompkins, whose devotion to conservation and each other led to the creation of extraordinary national parks in Chile and Argentina. For Chin, the origins of the documentary go back more than 20 years, when he was first welcomed into a group of climbers who were friends of the Tompkinses, including Rick Ridgeway and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Eventually, Chin met the Tompkinses and learned about their ambitious vision for conserving millions of acres. In this episode, Chin talks about the incredible journey behind the making of 鈥榃ild Life,鈥� and Kristine shares her experience of opening up in front of the cameras and where Tompkins Conservation goes from here.

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This Memorial Day weekend marks 45 years of听, with more than 100 documentaries screening at the festival in Telluride, Colorado, from May 25 to 29. The 2023 festival is dedicated to the iconic late ski mountaineer听Hilaree Nelson, who died during her descent from 26,781-foot Manaslu on September 26, 2022. A longtime Telluride resident, Nelson appeared in various documentaries at Mountainfilm over the years, and guided programming as a guest director in 2021. At 1 P.M. on Sunday, May 28, the festival will host the world premiere of a documentary that captures one of Nelson鈥檚 last expeditions. 国产吃瓜黑料 is supporting Mountainfilm as its 2023 national media sponsor.

After three years of holding an online festival due to the pandemic, Mountainfilm will only be in-person this year. In addition to feature-length and short films, Coffee Talks, the Minds Moving Mountains Speaker Series, and DocTalks are on the schedule. You can purchase passes for the festival .

When Mountainfilm was founded in 1979, most of its programming focused on gravity-defying climbs. As word of the festival spread, the event grew to include a diverse range of athletes, activists, and artists. This year鈥檚 lineup exemplifies that tradition, celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.听听

Here are five films we can鈥檛 wait to see this weekend:

Earthside

In the spring of 2022, Hilaree Nelson, Brette Harrington, Emily Harrington, and Christina Lustenberger flew north of the Arctic Circle with the goal of scoring first descents on Baffin Island. Navigating massive seracs and freezing temperatures, the group spent over a week skiing 1,000-meter couloirs and climbing more than 20,000 vertical feet as part of an expedition sponsored by the North Face. Earthside (40 min.) captures the highs and lows of that trip, as directors Kaki Orr and Robert Wassmer follow the team through tests of will and trust. The documentary is especially poignant in light of Nelson鈥檚 death just months after filming. The 49-year-old mother of two was a mentor to athletes of all genders, but particularly to women. Watching Nelson guide this all-women expedition is both heartbreaking and heartening, a reminder of all that she made possible.

Wild Life

When her husband Doug died in a kayaking accident in 2015, Kristine Tompkins was left to lead the couple鈥檚 conservation nonprofit alone鈥攋ust as the organization was about to make the largest private land donation in history. Wild Life (93 min.), from Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, chronicles Tompkins鈥檚 dogged efforts to create national parks in Chile and Argentina, preserving the countries鈥� natural wonders for generations to come. The documentary is, as Stephanie Pearson wrote for our听 May/June issue, an 鈥渆pic saga of love and loss,鈥� revealing how Tompkins channeled her grief into protecting some 14.8 million acres. 鈥淚 want people to realize that this film is not about Doug and Kristine,鈥� Tompkins told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the representation of hundreds of Chileans鈥� and Argentines鈥� work. Mother Nature is not winning this game. We are all on the losing team, and everybody needs to join the fight.鈥�

Cowboy Poets

Since 1985, people have gathered in the high desert of Elko, Nevada, for the annual . For six days, crowds pack into small downtown theaters to hear stories about ranching, horses, and life in the rural west. In Cowboy Poets (92 min.), director Mike Day turns his lens toward these storytellers as they navigate an ever-changing landscape blighted by climate change, fossil fuel extraction, and political polarization. Through lyrical verse, the cowboy (and cowgirl) poets interrogate their region鈥檚 founding myths and contemplate a way forward, as drought and wildfires threaten to decimate their livelihoods. With lingering wide shots of torched pasture and mountainous expanses, Day records what has been lost and what鈥檚 at stake.

Patrol

On the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua sits a wildlife sanctuary teeming with jaguars, great green macaws, and howler monkeys. The 785,000-acre Indio Ma铆z Biological Reserve is home to the Rama and Afro-descendant Kriol peoples, who consider the area sacred. In Patrol (82 min.), directors Brad Allgood and Camilio De Castro Belli follow park rangers from both groups as they attempt to shield the land from illegal cattle ranchers. The film draws attention to the urgent issue of 鈥渃onflict beef鈥濃€攎eat harvested from deadly attacks on Indigenous land. Demand for imported beef in the U.S. soared during the early days of the pandemic, and Nicaraguan settlers stole acreage to increase production, . The reserve is one of the most intact tracts of lowland forest left in Central America. As Patrol shows the Indigenous rangers teaming up with a conservationist and undercover journalists, the documentary illustrates how protecting ancestral lands is a moral and environmental imperative.

Mama Bears

As GOP-led state legislatures across the country attack the rights of trans children, thousands of mothers are taking a stand. Mama Bears (90 min.), directed by Daresha Kyi, follows some of the 32,000 movement members fighting for a better world. Many self-described 鈥渕ama bears鈥� grew up in conservative Christian households, where they were taught that being LGBTQ was a sin. But their faith in God is what propels their activism. 鈥淭he Bible says some are born this way, and some are made this way. And my child is fearfully and wonderfully made. My child was born for a time such as this,鈥� activist Kimberly Shappley says .

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The Rescue, an extraordinary 2021 film from Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi鈥攖he power couple behind Free Solo鈥攖ells the story of 14 teenagers who got stranded deep inside a flooded cave in Thailand and their improbable, high-risk extraction. One of the film鈥檚 most compelling scenes occurs early, when the girlfriend of a rescue diver is describing their courtship鈥攖he attraction, the dates, the sweet notes. The interviewer asks: 鈥淒id you fall in love?鈥� After a pause and a sheepish grin, she nods vigorously and says, 鈥淵es!鈥� It鈥檚 a small moment of warmth and vulnerability in a thriller that otherwise unfolds at breakneck pace, and it connects us to the characters in a way that even their heroic actions do not.

The Rescue is just one of many impressive adventure documentaries that have created considerable buzz in recent years. Of course, everyone has seen Free Solo, but The Alpinist and 14 Peaks also made a splash. And how about HBO鈥檚 100 Foot Wave鈥攁 series following Garrett McNamara鈥檚 attempt to ride a monster swell that made me shout at my TV in amazement? Or , about the rise and fall and rise of Scott Lindgren, one of the world鈥檚 greatest whitewater kayakers? The list goes on: The Dawn Wall, Torn, Meru, Sunshine Superman, Icarus, , , , and , to mention just a few. These came from filmmakers who had to work very hard to bring their projects to life.

As a writer who has spent several decades refining my own craft, I can appreciate how challenging it is to get such stories right. And as a movie buff with a yen for adventure鈥攁mong other things, I鈥檝e served as a moderator at Mountainfilm and as a judge at the 5Point Film Festival, both eagerly anticipated annual gatherings in Colorado鈥擨 can say with confidence that there鈥檚 never been a time as rich in high-quality adventure documentaries as right now.

Some reasons behind the success are obvious: bigger budgets, smaller cameras, better production and editing technology, more distribution platforms, from Netflix to YouTube, and expanding audiences hungry for outdoor-focused entertainment. Less obvious is the evolution of nuanced storytelling techniques, which made these projects special.

鈥淲ith core action-sports films, it鈥檚 always been about the most high-end capture possible,鈥� says Todd Jones, cofounder of Teton Gravity Research (TGR), which produced Lindsey Vonn: The Final Season and the acclaimed Kissed by God, on the life and death of surfer Andy Irons. 鈥淏ut when you give us a really good story, and you let us apply our craft and tactics of filmmaking to it, and when we bring the high-end visuals and mix that with story, you get this really beautiful and sophisticated 颅documentary.鈥�

I grew up watching ski and snowboard flicks as well as edge-of-your-seat adventure movies from Brain Farm, Matchstick Productions, Sherpas Cinema, TGR, and others. They were slick, myopic, and mostly devoid of narrative. I loved them. Eventually, though, I sought deeper, more meaningful fare鈥攁ward-winning features, critics鈥� picks, historical films. I fed my growing appetite at film festivals, tracked down rare DVDs, ferreted out classics: , A Sunday in Hell, , and many more. There were some vintage standouts, like Kon Tiki, the Oscar-winning 1950 documentary about Thor Heyerdahl鈥檚 epic voyage across the Pacific on a wooden raft. I also enjoyed , a moody, introspective tale of Yuichiro Miura鈥檚 1970 descent of the world鈥檚 tallest mountain. But finding really great adventure documentaries was like panning for gold.

For me, the movie that ushered in a new level of empathy and narrative mastery was , a 2004 docudrama based on Joe Simpson鈥檚 bestseller about two climbers who struggled to survive a horrific 颅accident on Siula Grande, a 20,000-foot peak in Peru. Because there was no footage from the expedition, Scottish director Kevin Macdonald鈥攁lready an Oscar winner for the 2000 documentary 鈥攗sed actors to re-create the events. Weaving the action with interviews from Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, the film dances around a central moral dilemma: When do you leave your injured friend to save yourself? When do you cut the rope?

Touching the Void works well because it connects the dramatic details of alpine climbing with universal, relatable qualities that make us human. 鈥淚t was the loneliness, that sense of being abandoned, which was there all the time,鈥� says Simpson in the film鈥檚 penultimate scene, the camera pulled in tight. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 crawl because I thought I鈥檇 survive. I think I wanted to be with somebody when I died.鈥�

Our current crop of creators must have been taking notes. 鈥淧eople sign up for the adrenaline rush of watching someone push the edge, but they connect with the story through those human moments,鈥� says Max Lowe, whose 2021 documentary Torn explores how his family has coped with the loss of his father, the storied climber Alex Lowe. When Alex Lowe鈥檚 body was discovered in Tibet 17 years after his death in an avalanche on 26,335-foot Shishapangma, his wife and children were forced to confront many unresolved feelings, not the least of which were those of the filmmaker himself.

Some subjects offer easy access. Others, not so much. In Lindsey Vonn, getting past the ski-racing superstar鈥檚 surrounding crowd of friends and handlers鈥攖he 鈥淰onntourage,鈥� as Teton鈥檚 Todd Jones puts it鈥攑roved to be one of the trickier parts of the endeavor. To capture scenes that the filmmakers couldn鈥檛 get near, they attached a microphone to Vonn and shot from a distance. Pieces of footage were even filmed on an iPhone by one of Vonn鈥檚 trainers, in closed-door sessions. The result is a documentary that resonates with honesty and raw emotion, a moving portrait of a great athlete navigating the end of her career.

国产吃瓜黑料 filmmakers also understand that, at times, you might need to shoot without any crew at all. In The Alpinist, Sender Films鈥� gripping profile of Canadian climbing phenom Marc-Andr茅 Leclerc, some of the most compelling material comes from Leclerc himself while he鈥檚 pinned down in the middle of a big solo ascent. 鈥淭here鈥檚 that kind of intimacy you get of Marc-Andr茅, thousands of feet up on the headwall of Torre Egger in the teeth of a Patagonian storm,鈥� says director Nick Rosen. 鈥淗e鈥檚 bivouacked on this ledge and pulls out the camera to give this message to his girlfriend. It鈥檚 maybe my favorite part of the whole film.鈥�

In a certain sense, this is the kind of thing Hollywood has always aimed for, and frequently missed, in scripted films, defaulting to laughably sensationalized dramatic action in lieu of authentic characters and scenes. (Looking at you, Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit.) Even the better efforts, like Sean Penn鈥檚 adaptation of Jon Krakauer鈥檚 or Jean-Marc Vall茅e鈥檚 version of Cheryl Strayed鈥檚 Wild鈥攂oth terrific books鈥攈ad less impact than, say, The Alpinist or The Rescue. But that, too, may be changing soon: for their next project, Chin and Vasarhelyi have signed on to direct Nyad, a feature film based on the story of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, which will star Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as her manager.

It wasn鈥檛 long ago that I felt adventure films were routinely falling short. But with so much talent behind the cameras these days, that鈥檚 no longer the case. New adventure documentaries are living up to their potential, with dazzling, sometimes daring cinematography and a deep sense of character, tackling the existential questions that our exploits in the natural world often provoke.

The forthcoming feature about Nyad may elevate the scripted Hollywood movie to new heights, but some cool new adventure documentaries are on the horizon, too, including a series from TGR on extreme sports, which is in production for HBO. I鈥檓 already on the couch, popcorn popped, ready to catch the next wave.

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