We headed out to the world premiere of The Tribes of Palos Verdes at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to snag red carpet interviews with the men of the hour: the Malloy Brothers. While Directors Emmett and Brendan Malloy are responsible for goofy cult classics like Out Cold and the music video for Blink 182’s “First Date” (my personal favorite!), their efforts with The Tribes of Palos Verdes took a decidedly somber tone. They meld the backdrop of idyllic Palos Verdes, privilege, and surf culture with a dysfunctional family, mental health issues, drug abuse, and infidelity. The results are stirring. But the Malloy brothers kept it light on the red carpet.
“We got to tell a non-corny surf story about somebody really falling in love with surfing,” said Emmett Malloy. “I’ve done a lot of goofy shit, so this was cool to do something different, because I’m an emotional person, so that was cool to lean into. We touch upon all of the Bay Boys stuff, but that was touchy for us. We didn’t want to tell that story. Not in this movie. But we address it, and we were there within it, which was cool.”
The film digs into more relatable topics, like family.
“It’s really hard to find a stronger bond between kids loving their mother and a mother loving her kids,” says Brendan Malloy. “So that’s where a lot of the emotion comes from in the story.”
The Tribes of Palos Verdes is definitely one of the darker films we’ve seen this year, and lands especially heavy among films that broach surf culture. You can read a full review of the film here.
Video shot and edited by Kevin Welti.
