Luke Hemsworth and Rasmus King aren't to blame for the problems in this film, about a surfing drug dealer and his son who are forced to move after a forest fire.
Sometimes a movie comes along that just feels right. From the first plane, he envelops us in his world with a commitment that allows us to forgive shortcomings.
Director: Tyler Atkins
Writers: Tyler Atkins, Drue Metz
Stars: Isabel Lucas, Luke Hemsworth, Leeanna Walsman
Bosch & Rockit is such a movie. Written and directed by actor Tyler Atkins, his first time directing a film, it is a coming-of-age story that follows teenage surfer Rockit (played by professional surfer Rasmus King) and the ups and downs of his relationship with his father, heart of- pot of gold farmer Bosch.
When a fire engulfs Bosch's crop, he is forced to run from the law, including the dirty cops he does business with. With his child in tow, Bosch heads to postcard-perfect Byron Bay, where he has an affair with Deb, daughter of the owner of the Sails Motel where they're staying.
Meanwhile, Rockit, largely left to his own devices, sails a lot, eats fish and chips, and begins a friendship of his own with waif Ash, also from a broken home.
As the police close in, Rockit is tricked by his mother, Liz, but she struggles to give Rockit the care he needs (she's an alcoholic) and ends up leaving him with her father.
Angry at his parents, Rockit takes a job on a shrimp trawler, Ash returns to his life, and their relationship blossoms.
Every part of a person's life should be as interesting as any other, yet there is something in these stories that always captures your attention. This is probably why we see so many of these movies throughout the year, but some connect better than others, and we get to watch one of those movies today.
So, to set the scene, we open on the New South Wales coast when a boy, Rockit (Rasmus King), is barrel surfing the waves. While he struggles with school and wants to spend time surfing, his father Bosch (Luke Hemsworth) makes money selling weed grown on his property in the hills. Things are going well until Bosch's partner and local cop, Keith (Michael Sheasby), recruits a new boss, Derek (Martin Sacks), who wants them to sell coke too. This is bad, but before Bosch can get out of this mess, a wildfire rushes down a hill, bringing the police straight to Bosch's farm. Knowing that the police are attacking him, both legitimate and dirty, Bosch grabs Rocket and goes on the run, or as he calls it, "a vacation."
The first thing I want to mention about Bosch & Rockit is how beautiful the movie looks. There's a running joke you know when you're watching an Aussie movie from all the aerial shots the drones set up, but when you have a setting like this it just works. It is also used to show coastal water in all its different states, from the crisp clean barrels in the swell to the tea tree stained streams flowing into the sea. The aquatic photography, especially the underwater shots, is flawless, and it's clear that a lot of skill goes into capturing them. This movie is obsessed with sunsets and sunrises and you better believe we live in the golden hour and since they are surfing it feels like a proper thematic dressing than just because it looks good. While we're talking about the production design, I do what I also do to highlight the sound design because this is the only film I've seen that has captured what sand sounds like when you walk on it.
One of the clever things the film does is place itself in a time without being explicit about it. Because much of the content is set in more rural and coastal areas, you don't immediately realize that not everyone has mobile phones. Instead, you only get these deeply nostalgic moments when The Living End's Prisoner of Society is dropped, and you're thrown back in time. I don't think I really timed it until I was sitting there saying, 'people actually use their home phones on this,' and then the horrible sound of someone using dial-up internet came through the phone line. Not being able to call someone because they were on the internet took me back to high school and probably forced a couple of hairs on my bear to give up and just go gray. Although I will say that this is a movie that stands on the right side of the Potato Scallop/Potato Cake debate, and I appreciate them for that.
Watch Bosch & Rockit 2022 Movie Trailer
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