The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017)

Instant Favorite.

Admirable film.

A lot of fun.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I wasn't sure what to expect when I rented this movie. Didn't even hear about it at the movies and I dont have tv for commercial previews. I just know watching this young girl's family deteriorate before your eyes was so heartbreaking. The mom (Jennifer garner) has no clue as to how her emotionally erratic behavior is pushing everyone she loves away. To the point her surgeon husband wants to leave her for someone else. The only outlet the kids have to deal with the emotional drama is surfing and alcohol and drugs. Well, the latter for the son. He's the new head of the household the mom keeps screamingly reminding him. Crazy pressure on a teen, no wonder he sought out drugs and alcohol to numb the pain and what was going on, eventually leading to his ultimate demise. The parents were clueless on how their screaming and fighting and infidelity was affecting their own kids. They were truly unsatisfied family. It was heartbreaking to watch. Makes me take notice of my own 14 year old .... Good but heartbreaking movie.

When the situation at her idyllic Palos Verdes home turns volatile, young Medina attempts to surf her way to happiness. The Tribes of Palos Verdes benefits from 2 strong perfomances from it's 2 female leads Maika Monroe and Jennifer Garner who are terrific on their roles both as the daughter and the mother also the film does feel real at times with the story that it tells of how once place can take lots of things from certain people and also how to deal with a divorce or problems with the parents of even ourselves and that part is the surf for the main girl although to be honest the film at times does get a bit over the top with certain characters or situations surrounding them plus Milo Gibson's character was wasted and Alicia Silverstone's part could have been played by anyone. Still tho it's a dramatic film with some excellent perfomances and a powerful message about loss, divorce and overall love in general and it definitely isn't the kind of 5.4/10 movie. (7.0/10)

Another reviewer referred to this film as "cruel." I think a better word is "sad." It was quite well done. Despite anticipating the brother's demise, I was moved to tears at the end. The film did a great job of showing the complexities of being in a nuclear family in the 21st century, though, to be honest, I wasn't sure of the time frame until Facebook was mentioned. In most films that take place today the cell phone plays a major role and in this film it didn't, though they did Skype. Anyway, Jennifer Garner is usually not a favorite of mine, but her acting in this film was excellent as was Maika Monroe's. The complex emotions exchanged by the members of this broken upper middle class family were realistic, palpable, and multi-dimensional. For example, it would have been easy to simply hate the father (Justin Kirk) for falling out of love with his wife and leaving his family for another one, yet one scene in which he explains himself to his daughter, bore some truths which made me feel empathy for him as well as the others. The story was presented with depth which is what made it successful, in my opinion. It's not a happy film, or even particularly hopeful, but it is a realistic slice of life and engrossing.

This is a very good movie, people and characters in it are all look real. The broken marriages to so many families nowadays in almost every country of the world not only affected so many husbands and wives but also seriously messed up their children. America's social infrastructure is like a broken and shattered glass, so many broken families, so many toilet relationships, so many twisted hardship that kids have to deal with their parents' bad marriage. America has become a weird family tree, its branches and leaves so complicated, either the wives carried their kids to new marriage, or the husbands brought their kids from his first, second or even 3rd marriage to newest wives, while their newer wives or husbands also got their own kids from their former marriages. More divorces simply complicated the family tree's growth and burdened it to unknown, unpredictable and unfathomable abyss. Kids growing up from such broken families many have twisted views almost to everything that ensured them to repeat the same or similar situations of their own marriages, their relationship to their opposite gender. They would become a bad copy of their parents and usually, the 2nd or the 3rd copy will be always worse than its 1st edition.This is a very cruel but up close and personal film that I could hardly be able to watch to the end. I pity the three young children from two different broken families. The hardships they have to deal with 24/7 are so cruel and unbearable. I felt so sad while watching it and couldn't resist thinking of my elder son's broken marriage, and the grandson jammed in between his mother and father. The hardship my son has to deal with everyday is beyond every word could be described. This film is just too cruel to watch.....