What a gorgeous piece of cinema! Not just the stunning landscapes treated with stunning cinematography but the authenticity of felt human experience communicated in simple narrative and dramatic terms. Forget the genre antics, forget the auteur pretentiousness, forget the arthouse poseurs. Tim Winston's brilliantly realistic story meets a brilliantly realistic cinematic treatment by all involved, Simon Baker proving that authentic lived experience is the best guide to inform directorial duties. He treats the story and its themes like a true local Aussie who's totally at home with the story and the characters that populate it. To his immense credit he's made no attempt to trade off the authenticity of this Australian story for a more internationalised market driven approach. And this sticking to the true spirit of Winston's story pays the ultimate dividend: treating the viewer to a range of universal themes about friendship, growing up, the role of the natural environment in our lives etc. Cinematic Occam's Razor at its best. Keep it simple, keep it true, keep it pure. A beautiful film, visually and emotionally, unpretentious and authentic. Many Aussie directors have gone to Hollywood to make it happen. Simon Baker comes home to do it and does it superbly. Mr Baker, more please!

Ignoring the possible, but incongruous side show of sex between a 20s something wife? and a high schooler, the movie portrays the lives of two Aussie teens. Filled w/cussing and still riding bikes to get around they discover the rush of big wave surfing. Starting w/styrofoam boards and working their way up w/the help of an ex-pro surfer the five star worthy highlights are shots of coastal ocean beauty, and the intelligent conversational life emboldening eruditions sprinkled throughout the movie.

I didn't enjoy this movie at all I think it's title should be Yawn not Breath. Great cinematography, one dimensional characters, unexplained plot twists and the 2 characters Sando played well by Simon Baker and Eva played with icy detachment by Elizabeth Debicki I found excruciatingly annoying and frustrating. Sando's character a once famous surfer turned immature irresponsible hippy chasing lost dreams (its never explained what happened to his career) and Eva his sickly injured girl friend who shows no emotion at all and without giving the plot away ( there's not much to give away) becomes entangled in what I found to be a disturbing and predatory sexual encounter with the only character in the story,I had any empathy with .Eva is the most disturbing female character I've seen depicted in a film in ages . The 2 young actors cast as Pikelet and Loonie played by Samson Coulter and Ben Spence are excellent but Richard Roxburgh and Rachael Blake's characters as the parents who seem to let their son do anything he wants , even risk his life fulfilling the whims of surfer hippy freedom in my opinion are wasted due to the parents lack of character development. I did like Pikelet's decision at the end it was the best part of the plot. I know people who enjoyed it and have read good reviews and bad for this film but as I always say the best critic for a film I see is myself and in this instance not my cup of tea thanks, perhaps I'm over Coming of Age films I didn't like Call Me By Your Name either for similar reasons.