Director-writer-star Caitlyn Sponheimer explodes out of the gate with her debut feature drama Wild Goat Surf. Twelve-year-old skater girl Goat (Shayelin Martin) lives with her mother Jane (played by Sponheimer) in an RV on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. The story is set in the summer of 2003 when Jane and Goat are struggling to recover from the death of Goat’s father, who was a competitive surfer.
Jane works several jobs to keep them afloat, as well as sub-letting her summer rental house. While she is off earning money to keep them housed (albeit in an RV) and fed, Goat and her best friend Nate (Leandro Guedes) have plenty of unstructured time and opportunity to hang out and get into trouble. Goat’s main obsession, however, is with surfing, despite being nowhere near a wave. They shoplift surfing magazines from a local convenience store and spend hours poring over every detail of the current surfers and competitions.
The summer is a revelatory time for the two unlikely companions. When they befriend a man who rolls into the RV park with surfboards on his SUV, Nate confesses his sexual attraction may be more for someone like the surfer. Nate’s parents are conservative, and definitely better off financially, and he is terrified of what they would think if they knew. Goat maintains a tough exterior, but she’s dealing with the awful grief of her father’s death by alternately acting out or disconnecting from the world completely. Despite being landlocked, the ocean calls to Goat, perhaps as a way she can recapture the spirit of her father. This is her homage to him, and a way to keep the most passionate part of him alive inside her. However, the road to this metaphysical goal isn’t clear, and her pain at dealing with his loss leads to many poor choices along the way.
… surfing obsessed Goat lives with her mother in an RV on Okanagan Lake …”
There are four main elements that keep Wild Goat Surf firing on all cylinders. The first three are the performances by Sponheimer, Guedes, and most especially Martin, who carries the film with an acting range and depth far beyond her years. She gives us Goat as nonchalant, but the rage, grief, and loneliness are all there. The last element that grounds the film is the beautiful scenery of British Columbia. Vistas in every direction are a breathtaking delight and Joseph Schweers’ cinematography makes the most of this natural beauty.
Sponheimer talked about being inspired by her own youthful Canadian summers in an interview with Hollywood North Magazine. “Once it was clear that I would direct it, it changed as I was writing from a different viewpoint. Wild Goat Surf got a lot better when it became more personal. Every summer as a kid, I’d travel with my family to Penticton. The motorhome in the film belongs to my parents. That’s the same one from my childhood. The campgrounds were amazing places where we would spend our entire summers.”
As a film critic focused on Indies, one digs through a lot of dreck. Everyone with a camera and a crowdfunding account thinks they can make a film. You spend a lot of time bleeding from the eyes, enduring one after another uninspired copycat exercise in cinematic self-abuse. It wears. Then a casually masterful work of art by a first time film-maker comes along like Wild Goat Surf and your faith is restored. Films like this one are why we keep going.
"…a casually masterful work of art by a first time film-maker"
