The Cuckoo Clock Film Blog

Contains spoilers

Over the various Covid lockdowns in 2020-21, my main method of socialising (other than Zoom quizzes) was watch parties. A friend and I would pick a director and then view several of their works. Kathryn Bigelow was one of my favourites and we covered The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Detroit (2017). All of them were fantastic but the standout discovery was Point Break (1991), which I hadn’t seen since the mid-90s when I watched it with my sister. My main memory of it was Anthony Kiedis getting his foot mashed up by a shotgun. Confident there probably was more to it than that, I went in with an open mind and what a treat it was.

We are introduced to Keanu Reeves who as Johnny Utah is the wooden rookie who wishes he were a real-life FBI agent. Patrick Swayze (RIP, sir) is all chest, lustrous locks and new age mantras as surf dude Bodhi. If that doesn’t thoroughly excite you then the cinematography is impressive and the shots of surfing and skydiving are genuinely exhilarating. It inspires discussion on its credentials as a female gaze film and anyone who has seen Point Break does not need telling that the real romance of the picture is not Utah and the feisty surf-babe Tyler but Bodhi and Utah.

Utah’s first day with the FBI is a quick induction from asshole-by-numbers boss Ben Harp (John McGinley) who insults him a lot before sending him to meet old timer Agent Pappas (Gary Busey) who insults him even more. Pappas eventually lets Utah in on his theory around the ‘Dead Presidents’ gang who have committed a series of bank robberies with the FBI clueless as to who they are. Following a soil sample taken from a crime scene containing a well known wax used on surf boards plus the robberies only occurring during the summer months, Pappas believes the gang are surf dudes using the money to fund trips abroad to chase the waves. This naturally brings out the douchebag in every agent within earshot and Pappas’s fairly interesting, outside-the-box take on the crime spree is pissed on royally with everyone clearly wondering when this oddball crumbly is going to retire. Utah buys it though and via an analysis of one of the robber’s discarded hair, they are able to narrow their search down to one stretch of beach.

Utah’s infiltration into the surfing world happens fairly quickly albeit only after it nearly kills him. His tactic is to just turn up at the beach and start surfing which shockingly does not go well. Tyler (Lori Petty) arrives and saves his flailing ass so Utah creepily follows her to her place of work and (via a search of her criminal history) establishes a connection and convinces her to teach him to surf. Tyler introduces him to Bodhi and following this meet-cute on the beach, the two men eye and flirt with one another as Bodhi gradually draws Utah into his world. The men eventually consummate their relationship through a night time surf, Utah even shouting “I’m fucking surfing!” in the manner of a gentleman approaching the vinegar strokes. Their bromance, in my humble opinion, is one of the best in cinema.

Utah scores an invite to Bodhi’s beach house party following him rescuing Utah from a kicking by Anthony Kiedis’s bad surf bunch. Naturally Bodhi’s ocean abode is no ordinary surf shack: he practically has a medieval castle on the beach with strategically placed photos of him doing extreme sports. Utah fails to clock these signifiers which suggest that Bodhi seems to have a lot of cash for a man with no occupation. Utah at this point still thinks the bank robbers are the surf gang who roughed him up that afternoon meaning he has no interest in questioning the cash flow of his new friend. Confirmation bias is clearly not an essential part of FBI training.

An unfortunate side effect of the Bodhi/Utah connection is that Tyler becomes increasingly overshadowed as a character. She starts off very promisingly. After dragging Utah’s useless-at-surfing ass out of the sea, she rightly calls him on his stupidity and leaves his twitching form coughing in the sand. Then there is the discovery that she is an orphan and possesses a fairly lengthy criminal record. Not your average lady love interest. What stood out for me with Tyler is that she fits into Bodhi’s world as an equal. She holds her own during a beach football game and, whilst it’s clear Tyler has sexual history with Bodhi, she’s indifferent and appears to view the liaison as casually as he does. In fact, she’s generally unimpressed with the rampant testosterone of the group which is in contrast to Utah who is very much drawn in by it.

It doesn’t take long for Tyler to discover Utah’s identity due to his inability to hide items which unequivocally show him to be an FBI agent and, quite rightly, she kicks him to the curb.

It continues to go downhill when Tyler is kidnapped whilst apparently trying on items from an Anne Summers catalogue. Upon her release she runs desperately through the desert in her negligee, throwing herself gratefully into Utah’s arms. I get being kidnapped is a traumatic ordeal, even for the scrappy Tyler, but seriously. Utah not only epically lied to her, he faked a parent trauma to get close to her. Tyler will be well aware that she has no real idea of who this guy is. It felt like a cop out to me and quick way to get in a happy ending. I’m not saying they would never have worked it out but even the post-kidnap Tyler would not have made reconciliation easy.

This whole episode with Tyler naturally brings us to one of the great wonders of Point Break. Namely what an absolutely terrible undercover agent Johnny Utah is. He starts off so well, reigniting the fire in Pappas’s counting-the-days-until-retirement belly, the grizzled agent seems genuinely enthused and keen to release his young pup onto the sand dunes. Their chemistry is great, especially when Pappas becomes increasingly protective of his charge.

When Utah is required to actually go undercover though, it becomes clear that the FBI module on covertly infiltrating criminal gangs involves handing out a piece of A4 paper with the below instructions written in crayon:

1. You will be partnered up with a gravelly-voiced man who looks like Nick Nolte and punches those in authority. This brings respect and definitely does not result in suspension from the force without pay
2. When infiltrating a gang undercover, use your real name. Pseudonyms are for wimps.
3. When hooking up with the hot chick to help with infiltration of said gang, totally give your home address and have undercover sex with her there. Make sure the gang know this address too, we cannot stress that enough.
4. Following on from the above, have your badge and gun lying around where she can eventually find them. This saves some awkward conversations later.
5. Make sure that the gang, in-between bank robberies or whatever criminal stuff they do, has a hobby that touches your soul and gives you an experience akin to a religious conversion. No reason for this, it just helps to make paperwork more interesting.
6. Part of being undercover means you should definitely be involved in a stake out and subsequent arrest when the gang do a job. Anything to make yourself visible to them. They’ll appreciate your honesty and won’t want to kill you. They will just want to do a parachute jump with you and hold hands in the sky.
7. On the subject of stake outs, it’s perfectly fine to go grab a sandwich for you and your partner during this critical part of policing. Just relax and choose a vendor whose position means your back is turned to the door at all times.
8. Whilst chasing a member of the gang following your disastrous stakeout, be aware they may throw a dog at you.
9. Become close friends with the gang leader which develops into a bromance so intense you stalk him across the planet to the point he eventually has to throw himself in the sea to escape you.

Utah following these rules to the letter probably explains why he’s not fired despite epically cocking up two police operations, literally taking part in a bank robbery and letting the main suspect drive off into the California desert.         

Having said that, to over-analyse Utah’s policing skills is to miss the point of Bigelow’s film. It’s about extremes and the lengths some will go to experience them. That Utah is seduced into the surfer’s world and begins to emulate the characteristics of those within it makes sense – the adrenaline is addictive. The film ends with Utah throwing his badge into the ocean after Bodhi chooses death-by-50-year-storm-wave over captivity. This High Noon (1952) moment confirms something the audience and Bodhi knew all along: Utah was one of them. Here’s hoping Bodhi left him the beachside castle in his will.

Next time: Part One of the Nicolas Cageathon including Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Valley Girl (1983)

View from the Ferris wheel:

Last Friday I watched Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai (1947) on the big screen at the BFI Southbank. Welles’s Irish accent is terrible but it’s an engaging film noir, Rita Hayworth is so beautiful and ice cold in this. Welles’s and Hayworth’s marriage was falling apart when Shanghai was filmed. For a fascinating look at their relationship, listen to Karina Longworth’s You Must Remember This podcast – YMRT Episode 31

Via Mubi I’ve been catching up on the work of Finnish screenwriter and director Aki Kaurismäki. So far I’ve completed his Proletariat Trilogy – Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990). Bleak, sparse and stripped-back filmmaking but very human.