Hustle & Fish is filmmaker Steve Apple’s second fly fishing movie, and it delivers handily on the promise of the first.
Stick around – you’ll want to know more.
Fishizzle – Steve Apple’s first fly fishing movie – showed plenty of promise (but lacked polish), but his latest effort – Hustle & Fish – offers us a glimpse of a fly fishing movie far removed from the simple fish porn formulas now occupying the mainstream.
“Hustle and Fish” Trailer V1 from Rollcast Productions on Vimeo.
The first half of Hustle & Fish feels like extended autobiographical sketch comedy that – simply put – shines.
In simple terms, Apple wants to fly fish – and thinks making fly fishing movies is his ticket to that future.
Sadly, he’s confronted by a world (including his girlfriend, parents & friends) that thinks he’s crazy.
In the wrong hands, the story could easily end up flopping on the bank, but Apple handles the the subject with a deadpan charm, imbuing some of the quieter moments with a dry wit you might miss the first time through.
Using amateur actors, Apple plows through the story of a young fly fishermen at a life-sized turning point, and while the scenes with his parents and friends are funny, Hustle & Fish really hits its stride when it turns it lens on the fly fishing industry – the caricatures of fly shop employees land hard, and yes – made me laugh out loud.
And yes, the return of fictional Fishizzle character and irritating informercialist Al Braughtinwood – who now makes and sells “Extreme” fly fishing videos – is a highlight.
I can only guess at the real targets of Apple’s send-up of Braughtinwood’s “extreme” fly fishing video series, but the fictional commercials are hilarious; the irritating Braughtinwood combines muscle cars, women, and fishermen kneeing each other in the crotch to sell his videos.
Like all good satirical characters, Braughtinwood looks and acts just lifelike enough to maintain the pretense of reality; his appearances are hilarious, barely grazing the border between satire and cartoonish.
Hustle & Fish‘s lead character is confounded by those who love Braughtinwood’s trashy “extreme” videos – even his father watches the wretched things.
In short, the first half of Apple’s Hustle & Fish delivers handily on the promise of Fishizzle, offering us a satirical (and far more human) look at the fly fishing life.
Simply put, I was impressed as hell.
Unfortunately, the movie eventually falters; Apple largely breaks with the endearing, funny-as-hell satire of the first half, opting instead for long sequences of fish porn and guide hijinks.
Yes, it’s gorgeous, well-done fish porn – and lacks the egocentric posturing that often blights the genre – but feels a little schizophrenic when contrasted with Apple’s earlier story line.
The videography is excellent, but like most fish porn, it’s a collection of pretty pictures largely lacking insight or vision, and Apple’s reliance on slow-motion video for almost every river scene eventually wears thin.
The movie wraps up nicely, and yes – if you’re waiting for me to say it, I will – Hustle & Fish is definitely worth owning.
The soundtrack (mostly up-and-coming independent bands) is excellent, and the editing is professional (though the overbearing fly fishing product placements played havoc with several scenes – the product of an independent filmmaker dependent on manufacturers for funding).
Yes – if I were Absolute Ruler of the Video Universe, I’d tell Apple to go back and finish his movie in the style he started it, creating fly fishing’s equivalent of This is Spinal Tap – the famous rock & roll “mockumentary” that changed the way we viewed both rock & roll bands and documentaries.
And yes, It’s likely a large chunk of Apple’s target audience is going to love Hustle & Fish’s fish porn sequences, so I’m going to give Hustle & Fish four fins (out of five) – largely for Steve Apple’s willingness to extend the somewhat rootbound fly fishing video genre.
In many ways, it’s a groundbreaking fly fishing video, and I suspect a bit of a wakeup call for others working in the genre. It’s also one of a small handful of fly fishing videos I’ll bother to keep.
See you in the cinema, Tom Chandler.
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