Woodyanders
Dennis Christopher of "Breaking Away" fame delivers a solid, engaging performance as T.T., a gawky, disenchanted, fresh out of high school adolescent hick from Chicago who comes to the cool California beaches to find women, contentment and excitement by becoming actively involved in the allegedly thrilling surfing lifestyle. Unfortunately, T.T. only discovers that the anomie and dissatisfaction he's trying to avoid in life are an intrinsic, albeit often ignored and unspoken part of the actually nothing terribly stirring surfing lifestyle.An appealingly off-beat seriocomic youthful rites of passage outing from -- and radical departure for -- American International Pictures, "California Dreaming" makes for a neat, incisive, slyly revisionist beach movie feature which refuses to mindlessly glorify the sport's empty hedonistic mentality; instead the film offers an illuminating expose of the drab, shallow, aimless workaday reality behind the great American myth of surfing while also tossing in some fine insights into love, growing up, responsibility, unfulfilled desires and unattainable, but still persistent dreams. Moreover, it's marvelously acted by a stand-out cast: the always delightful Seymour Cassel as Duke, the amiable, garrulous, aging volleyball playing beach bum bar owner who takes T.T. under his wing; the comely, golden-haired, very under-appreciated Glynnis O'Connor as Duke's somewhat snobby, but generally sweet daughter Corky, who wants T.T. to shuck surfing and dedicate himself to a more mature, useful occupation in life; Dorothy Tristan as Duke's still ardent and interested old flame Fay, the adorable Stacey ("Get Crazy," "Halloween III: Season of the Witch") Nelkin as vacuous, promiscuous beach bunny Marsha, and even a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Tanya Roberts as Stephanie, a stuck-up rich princess who can't get her unfaithful tube-blowing boyfriend to seriously commit to their relationship.Directed with trademark acuity, facility and sensitivity by the ever observant and eternally underrated John ("Bang the Drum Slowly," "Weeds") Hancock, with a sound, absorbing, fairly intricate and highly accurate script by Ned Wynn (who also co-stars as shiftless surfer dude Earl), lovely, sunny cinematography by Bobby Byrne, and a fun, breezy soundtrack (the folk-rock group America sing a few nice, catchy songs), this shamefully neglected and radiant gem qualifies as a charming, leisurely placed, often wryly amusing, sometimes dreamily (and genuinely) erotic, quite honest and cogent exploration of boredom and restlessness that benefits substantially from its funny, delicate, warm-hearted handling of its endearing assortment of everyday oddball characters. An utterly winsome and well-done little sleeper.
Pepper Anne
As Jennifer Denuccio used to say on Square Pegs, "Gag me out the door." I would definitely vote this movie on IMDB's Worst movie list.Dennis Christopher plays T.T., a guy from Chicago who goes to California peddling his brother's jazz records. He is supposed to be a barney placed in the locals-only surfing community. But he acts more like he is new to civilization (just try to get through his sex scene without squirming). There are also the on-going adventures of the rest of the local population that the viewer must endure. That of Duke (Seymour Cassell), the volleyball expert who tries to get T.T. to act like a normal human being, the obnoxious drunk surfers who cheat on their girlfriends, and the guy who makes a bet with another that he can live in car for sixth months.
California Dreaming is just a big old mess. It starts out like a typical seventies romp, complete with bad 70s music (even though this movie came out one year shy of the 80s). And Dennis Christopher comes off as the most irritable loser, it makes the movie hard to watch (keep your finger on the fast forward button). Even if this movie was supposed to be about the surfer culture, the surf scenes are almost total garbage. The people at the surf contest look as though they can't keep from falling asleep.
I guess the only cool thing is seeing Tanya Roberts outside of her role as Midge on the sitcom "That's 70s show." And Cassell wasn't bad, he was just in a bad movie.
ekwynn
"The 'Citizen Kane' of Beach Movies." Keith Kuramoto, Cinema Graduate, San Francisco State University
"This film was the template for all the teen-sex, coming-of-age, boys-and-boobs films of the 80's and 90's - From 'Porky's' to 'American Pie.'" Brian MacGregor, Cinema Graduate, San Francisco State University
This definitive Southern California sun-and-surf cult film is sacred in Japan!Where's the DVD for this film?Vestron Video!Are you listening? MGM: Where's the SEQUEL? California Dreamt!
kpmcdermott
I have just recently seen this movie for the first time in almost 20 years. Originally, the final credits rolled while we heard the Eagles signing their great version of California Dreaming. But the current version has some mindless, goofy music at that point. I find it unbelievable that the movie California Dreaming no longer is shown containing the song of the same name.
