Absinthe did not actually make an animated film, despite lack of snow this season.
Absinthe Films brought its newest project, Eversince to a hard-to-please Portland crowd Monday night. I normally like seeing premieres in theaters, but Refuge doubled as a cool concert venue with psych rock bands Easy Giant and Moon By You performing after the movie. The bar even had coconut water for your boy, so the turn up was real.
Justin Hostynek introduces Eversince to an eager Portland crowd.
They look eager right?!
In an age of shrinking full-length movie consumption, filmmaker Justin Hostynek is committed to producing the highest quality film. His crew is full of heavy hitters and his shots are epic. Heads up to other film companies trying to appeal to Portlanders: throw in a sizable method like that of Manuel Diaz and you’ll have their attention. He might have to switch sponsors and start collecting Felix Baumgartner money from Red Bull after falling out of the sky from that high up.
Lucas Debari and Jason Robinson ripped some pretty uncalled for backcountry lines in their parts. I have no real backcountry experience, and after seeing those dudes slay, I’m pretty sure I won’t be prepared for it in this lifetime. Jason got completely covered up in a slide that could have easily blown out anyone else. After glimmers of hope he came ripping out unscathed to a roaring audience like a fighter knocking out the reigning champ. Don’t try this at home, kids!
Y’all may have thought The Lizard King and Bob Plumb getting a pro model deck from Stepchild was a joke. After his special guest appearance in Cale Zima’s part, Liz’s sponsors are going to have to renegotiate his contracts as he now can add multi-sport athlete to his resume. They should at least start paying him time-and-a-half. It’s cool to see someone of his stature in skating actually try and enjoy snowboarding.
Bode leak..
Trends to look out for are snowskating and frontside rodeos. Bode Merrill and Ozzy Henning both do some rad snowskate tricks including a bigspin frontboard from Ozzy. Wolle Nyvelt brought it back to the 90s with a switch frontside rodeo in the backcountry, but it was Jason Robinson’s boardslide to frontside rodeo that’s really going to have rail jam heroes needing to step up their game.
Keegan Valaika is still alive and acid dropped off a bridge early in his part to let y’all know he still don’t give a hoot. The wallride gap wallride shots of him got me stoked. He’s on some Spiderman vibe. He even showed off his pow ripping skills by keeping it pretty hella on a directional board in deep snow.
The homie Max was hyped!
The music moved the whole movie along well, even if it didn’t always hit a chord with me. Garrett Warnick won my song of the movie award. My favorite Tumblr wave artist Kitty Pryde is the backdrop for Warnick’s all around assault. It’s like he tapped into my “take her to Warped Tour to let her know it’s real” playlist. I was a little bummed that they censored Riff Raff’s verse though. How am I going to know what smells like Bumble Bee tuna?
Austen Sweeten did one of my favorite lines in the whole movie. He stepped up to a ledge to boneless off. I still can’t figure out how he aired up to a ledge unstrapped. It didn’t look like he unstrapped on the ledge so there can only be one answer. Fucking magnets.
Easy Giant kept it trippy.
Brandon Cocard pulled double duty. Not only did he kill it in the film, but he killed it on stage too.
“Moon By You is my favorite Portland band.” -Stan
Marry Me.
Everything Absinthe does is big. I’m always impressed with Justin’s devotion to his craft and I think you will be too. With the rest of the North American tour and a European leg ahead of them there are still opportunities to spend your night out catching Eversince.