Movie Review

Surfwise (2008)

Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | May 16, 2008

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

A-

Details Limited Release: May 09, 2008; Rated: R; Genre: Documentary

$SURF\'S UPBRINGING Surfwise uses the sport as the backdrop to introduce us to 85-year-old Dr. Dorian Paskowitz, his wife and... Surfwise$

SURF'S UPBRINGING Surfwise uses the sport as the backdrop to introduce us to 85-year-old Dr. Dorian Paskowitz, his wife and nine kids, and the unconventional ride of their lives

Surfwise, Doug Pray's cool documentary about 85-year-old Dr. Dorian Paskowitz, his wife, and their eight sons and one daughter is about surfing insofar as surfing is the family's shared passion. But the blunt-talking Paskowitz turned his back on capitalist convention, observes the Jewish Sabbath, kept the kids out of school, and raised his brood (now adults with a legacy of complicated feelings about their wild-ride youth) on the road in a cramped camper. And Pray is astute enough to know that, with colorful specimens of an alternative universe like these, sport is the least of what's docu-worthy about his subjects. A-

Originally posted May 16, 2008 Published in issue #992-993 May 23, 2008 Order article reprints

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