Wow! Such a good movie.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This film tells the story of a seemingly perfect family falling apart.The portrayal of the family falling apart is very gripping and engaging. It feels very real as well. I find the film captivating. I feel very connected with the characters, and feel sorry for all their predicaments.

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)

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.....

Greetings again from the darkness. Since there is always "trouble in paradise", perhaps living in paradise shouldn't even be a life goal. There are certainly less expensive ways to enjoy a nice view than relocating the family from the frozen Midwestern leisure of Michigan to the ultra-rich, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses hypocrisy of Palos Verdes. Joy Nicholson's 1997 book has been adapted for the screen by writer Karen Croner. Brothers Brendan Malloy and Emmett Malloy co- direct in what appears to be their feature film debut after 15 plus years of music-related videos, shorts and documentaries.The Masons move into a cliff-side mansion in Palos Verdes. The breathtaking Pacific Ocean view is supposed to offset the homogenized exclusive suburbia punctuated with manicured lawns, freshly painted homes, and close-minded wealthy folks. That works for Phil (Justin Kirk), the cardiologist who does see this as paradise and hopes his family will feel the same. His wife Sandy (Jennifer Garner) is struggling with depression, and their twin 16 year old kids Medina (Maika Monroe) and Jim (Cody Fern) are personality opposites … he being the popular kid, while she is a loner.Since we all know new curtains don't fix a broken window, the fractured family is soon on full display. The dysfunction came along as part of their relocation and much of this can be traced to Sandy's manic-depressive state. The stress-related fallout is ugly. Phil finds comfort in the arms of their Realtor (Alicia Silverstone), who scores a doctor to go along with her commission. This sends Sandy spiraling down the rabbit hole, as Jim starts experimenting with drugs, and Medina seeks peace on a surfboard that she procured through a most unusual negotiation. Most of the story is told from Medina's perspective, and Ms. Monroe excels. Her breakout role was a couple of years ago in IT FOLLOWS, and though she's a bit too old to play a 16 year old, she is so talented and relatable that to whatever extent the movie works for you, it's likely to be because of her. The way she handles the cold distance between she and her mother is heartbreaking, yet her sadness and frustration at being the only one recognizing the fall of brother Jim is truly devastating.The ultra-angst is sometimes a bit too heavy, as is the over-use of slow-motion and the intrusive indie music (as you might expect from music video directors). Many will hail Jennifer Garner's performance since it is so far removed from her usual grinning and lovable type, but I found her a bit too extreme and trying too hard. Despite these issues, the mystic draw of the sea makes perfect sense as Medina literally surfs the choppy waves of life. A threat of disaster is always on the cusp, and the filmmakers take full advantage of the contrasting beautiful setting. Finding our tribe is a key to life and we are privileged to follow along with rising star Maika Monroe's fabulous performance.