Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

collaboratewell Maroubra is now gentrifying suburb, the NSW state government (Liberal = conservative)has sold off the Long Bay jail site mentioned in this documentary; to developers for apartments. And those multi million dollar apartments won't be for housing commission 'boys' as many of this film's participants were . . . in the day.The doco was re-shown recently on free to air television. It reinforced that sport -- surfing and ruby league in this case -- provides a way out of poverty for some who otherwise wouldn't have a path, in contrast to the drug financed, homicidal chaos that is today's (2016) American gang culture. Although it was interesting to see members of the Comanchero motor bike gang referenced as interlocutors in the context of the Cronulla 'race' riots -- which didn't spread to Maroubra on the scale expected. Another vignette highlighted an interviewee's observation that group recognition was ethnic and colour blind.An interviewee opines in a further vignette that; the culture of the area and the group, benefited some group members because it increased their tolerance for high risk endeavours e.g. big wave surfing. Early on, in a telling interview, a university professor explains the predicament of local kids caused by the policing practice of fining juveniles for loitering and other misdemeanours -- as seen in Ferguson USA (2015). The fines mount up to a couple of thousand dollars by the time kids are 16 (legal driving age) which means they can't get a license and consequently that avenue (driving for local delivers)of social and economic participation is foreclosed.Is the individualism of the atomic family socially useful? The doco highlighted the support a multi-generational family can provide, with in this case, the grandmother offering a long term physically safe environment with food set against the boys mother's dysfunctional and unsafe predicament.A cult classic for anthropologists, sociologists and voyeurs.

candice_m Bra boys is a suggestive documentary about the surfing lifestyle in Australia. It shows aspects of the lifestyle outside of the surfing itself, including things like drinking, violence, friendship, family, murder and the involvement of the police and the law. It shows all of these things and the impacts that they have had on their lives.The documentary was directed by two members of surf gang ‘the Bra Boys’, Sonny Abberton and Macario de Souza. Because of this it shows their views on everything and their opinions of things. While this can appear to be a biased representation of events, they did direct the documentary so of course it is going to sway to being a bit biased. Because the Bra Boys are just assumed to be the bad guys by the media and police they want to defend themselves and their reputations. I think that is a fair representation and why wouldn’t they want to show themselves in a positive way.The Bra Boys are made up of male surfers that live in or around Maroubra Beach in New South Wales, Australia. They have all come from somewhat troubled backgrounds and didn’t really have great family lives when they were growing up so they have had to turn to each other. They come from a poor suburb and are all from working class families. They are all involved with the surf culture and lifestyle and have formed a tight brotherhood. They all have a lot of similarities so this is probably why they have bonded in the way that they have.The main people appearing in the documentary are the Abberton brothers. The Abberton brothers are Sunny, Jai, Koby and Dakota. They all share the same mother but only two of them have the same dad. Their mother was a heroin addict so she wasn’t really there to support them and so they just took care of each other throughout the years. The Abberton brothers and their friends from the area used to hang out at their Grandma, Mavis’, house. Her house was close to the beach so it was somewhere for them to hang out and from here they formed the Bra Boys.The documentary is narrated by Russell Crowe so from the start it gives it a kind of Australian feel. A lot of this documentary is all about Australian culture and a lot of Australians could relate to it. With things like them being against the police, larrikin characters, strong manly representation of men this can be associated as part of Australian culture.And so the documentary shows these troubled kids trying to do good for themselves and them just having fun and surfing all day. Everything is great for them until the Bra Boys have a run in with the police. It is one of the Bra Boy’s, Mark Mathews, birthday and they are celebrating with 200 of his friends at the Coogee RSL and the local police are having a Christmas party one floor above them. A fight breaks out between the two parties and 8 Bra Boys are arrested while no police officers are charged. From this event the police and the Bra Boys have clashed with the police thinking that the Bra Boys are a bunch of criminals. This part of the documentary they show the two sides of the story so it’s not really fair to say the whole film in biased.One of the main parts of the movie is when Jai Abberton is charged with murdering Anthony Hines. Anthony Hines had been to jail before and always in trouble with the police and was a friend of Jai’s. Jai supposedly shot Anthony Hines in self-defence and dumped his body of the side of a cliff into the water. Jai’s brother Koby was also charged for lying to the police and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Firstly Koby then later Jai were released with all charges dropped. Jai spent 10 months in prison though before the trial happened.Perhaps one of the positive things that the Bra Boys do in the film in when they apologise to the Lebanese community when the riots where happening in Cronulla, New South Wales. They are showing that they had no part in the riots and are very accepting of other cultures. I think that while this could be genuine and what they are really like it could have also just been to make themselves look better in front of the public.I don’t think that this documentary was at all a way to promote themselves because they started filming the documentary before a lot of these events happened. I think that maybe by making this documentary there names would become more well known but I don’t think it was the sole reason for making it. Overall I enjoyed the documentary as it was enjoyable for a documentary which I don’t usually find too interesting.Candice, GYC

lil_dancer_chik When the word documentary is mentioned the words boring and horrible pop into my head. I imagine wild life images with extremely boring narrators' voices that will put any normal person to sleep. The Bra Boys is anything but this sleep filled image. Filled with action and adventure it tells the story of notorious Abberton brothers, Jai, Koby and Sunny. The narration is by the manly Russell Crowe.In summary this movie is the Bra Boys response to everything in the media about the notorious beach gang in Maroubra. The world finally gets to hear the Bra Boys version about Crunalla riot, Mark Matthew's 21st, and the murder of Anthony Hines. Maybe even more importantly it show's how these events affected a gang of boys, who in the media is portrayed to have no feeling at all. Yes it's highly bias, but wasn't the media's side of the story as well? It is shot in a very amateur way and in parts goes on too much. A lot like the boys are bragging about the things the get up to. There's a lack of women, and in some cases a lack of clothes. If you can get past these minor factors it's a good watch.What is interesting and not deliberately put in is how well these boys have actually done to become at least half decent. Yes their idea of fun is jumping of a cliff a light, or bashing someone to a pulp, but at least they try to get the most out the life they have been given. They do the most they can to use surfing to get them out of the rut of their lives and then become good role models to the younger boys in the group, or at least compared to their home life. It's rather touching to watch considering what a lot of them cop at home. It's touching to see how much the Bra Boys support these boys and how much the gang is truly their family. It's very confronting because the viewer starts to realize they can't dismiss these kids as trouble makers, there's just so much more to their story.They add to the story by showing a lot of Australian culture and the history behind it. There's some humour included when talking about the laws put in place that included men wearing skirts and other such ridiculous things the Maroubra authorities put in place.This is why the film a worthwhile watch. It helps people see why these boys do such things. It shows a bigger picture of what the gang mentality is all about. It stirs empathy inside of the viewer.What does get old in the movie is the amount of fighting that is put into the film. For a 'defence film' it was a wrong choice because it makes them look horrible. It's like they can't make up their mind if they want to be strong and tough, or terribly misunderstood. I guess there giving us the whole of themselves not just the filtered through good bits, and then it's the viewer job to decide how exactly they should stereotype these guys.Nicole GYC

wombi900 The film 'Bra Boys' begins by describing the settlement of the Maroubra area and goes on to detail the often chaotic living situations of some of the areas younger citizens. From then on the story follows the journey of the Abberton brothers - Sunny, Koby and Jai - as they face court cases, gang violence and some massive waves.While I can appreciate the rags-to-riches story of the Abberton brothers, for me the story never really seemed to hit home. This may be because of the negative stigma that often goes hand-in-hand with the Bra Boys. However, I believe it is much more simple than that: it is a poorly directed and edited film. Too often was I distracted by the uneven sound, sub-par camera work and jumpy interview sequences.Yet, the film really shines when it is left to people other than the Abberton brothers to describe the various incidents through their own retelling. This balances the film nicely, rather than have Koby or Jai recount their own court cases and possibly omit certain details. Another element that enhances this film is the surf footage, which really is the tie that binds all these 'Bra Boys' together.But I found that the negatives far outweighed the positives for this film. It provides an interesting insight into one of Australia's most notoriously tight-knit surf cultures, yet the Abberton influence raises questions of bias regarding the various events which envelop his brothers. For me, this film was interesting but far from great.