FMFT Film Review

As we mentioned we had a fun FMFT family outing to the cinema last week to see the “much anticipated” Life Cycles film.

This now means we can go all Claudia Winkleman on you with a FMFT film review. In fact make that three film reviews, for the price of one.

First up was the surprise showing of the most hotly anticipated and widely watched internet bike film of the year, and we won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what it is, but simply say that we’ve mentioned it before and that it’s just as amazing on the big screen as it was on a website.

Moving onto the billed movies we settled into Vast first. This is a traditional style mountain bike film with a really European feel. It does a good job of the standard travelling to the ride, moment of contemplation, then diving into a big downhill style of narrative, and is split into short segments featuring different riders or groups of riders in very different locations. To me, at least this felt tired, and the pace wasn’t helped by a lot of lingering wide mountain shots which, while beautiful, didn’t exactly kept he adrenaline pumping. The riding is very much about endless mountain downhills, which I’d love to go and ride, but there’s nothing holding the film together, making it feel like a collection of internet clips crammed into a feature film. Also, if someone can explain to me why it was worth a segment on street trials on a 29er then I’d love to know. I want to see that kind of riding pushing the limits of what can be done, not just proving that it’s possible to do what we’ve all seen before on a more awkward bike. It got you wanting to ride but it was easy to let your attention drift as you got indigestion over the wide–open riding.

Things picked up in the interval as FMFT landed a set of Pro lock-on grips in the ticket raffle.

And then it was time for Life Cycles. This was a whole other type of mountain bike film. It focussed on the life of a bike, the relationship you build with it and the flow and feel of riding it hard. It loosely follows the seasons, and the building, life and ultimate destruction of the bike and clearly speaks to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a bike or had a moment of oneness with one over a section of trail. It was all about the links between the land and the rider and the bike. None of the riding was anything particularly new, but the beautiful way it was shot made it feel intense and emotional. Somehow the action shots, coolly interspersed with timelapse sequences, were real and dynamic with brilliant use of slow-motion for extra emphasis. Where timelapse was used it served to highlight the adventures you’ll take with a bike over its life and every condition you will ride in, showing, for example, snow melting from a frame, mud drying on a mech or a chain going rusty. Life Cyles is a beautifully shot love story about mountain biking and will make you want to drag your favourite bike out and go and ride.

A