Review of The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017) by Bill S — 10 Apr 2018

A movie that explores the challenge of growing up in your own 'tribe' or family and what happens when it dissolves all of a sudden.

All of us belong to certain types of tribes whether rich, poor, goth, nerd etc.

Wonderful acting from Jennifer Garner and Makia Monroe.

Medina has her parents and her brother, they all live in Palos Verdes California where things are a certain way when taking up residence.

Cut the grass, maintain the beaches, surf on your own turf, people soon forget about what you look like and only care about the rest of what's considered perfect.

Medina loves to surf but she's got a lot on her plate to deal with with her father leaving for another woman, her mother having a meltdown and being subconscious about her aging body, and her brother having to take the reigns around the house while abusing drugs.

It's one thing when you are born into a certain tribe but it's another entirely when you abandon it.

After Medina's father leaves it leaves almost everyone in shambles so the surfing is the only remedy for her next to confiding in her brother.

All of us are our own tribe, we can search for another or make one for ourselves.

Makia Monroe and Jennifer Garner give such heartwrenching performances as mother and daughter dealing with this stress and anxiety of a family broken up, the music is very romantic, the cinematography is so breathtaking with the scenery of the California coastline, and a tragic if familiar story gets by with earned emotional beats.

Medina's passion has always been to travel around the world with her brother; the ocean serves as the rest of the world being open to so many things, there's dangerous stuff yes but you can always have something with you to patch it up.

The rest of it seems magical.

Heavy, powerfully acted, stunning to look at, and says you don't have to have an itinerary to do what you love.