Absinthe Films "Heavy Mental"

Absinthe Films: Heavy Mental teaser a snowboarding video by Absinthe Films

Justin Hostynek and the boys over at Absinthe Films dropped another superlative-expanding snowboard movie this year and it's as good as anything they've ever brought to the screen. The backcountry is as heavy as it always is from them (really heavy) and the urban riding is on-point, too. If there is a caveat here, it's that it's the first shred flick I've seen this year, so I'm primed to like whatever I see. I might have been impressed by an SD phone video from a five year-old filmed entirely in North Dakota. That said, Heavy Mental set the bar pretty high for the rest of the season and I'm sure they cut all the shots from North Dakota (though there were a few from a snow-covered Portland).

I'm not one to spoil the opener and the ender, so if you want to know, just watch the movie already. Any number of guys could have been the ender. Heavy Mental even pulled off the rare double-double: two, two-song sections. You'll want to see both. Trust me. Here are some of my highlights.

Austen Sweetin had a fully balanced part including a jump Justin Hostynek called the biggest he'd ever filmed. Yup. Let that sink in for a second. Justin's been in the game forever and filmed some giants. Travis Rice comes to mind. And this was the biggest. Now, Austen's a little dude. He makes pow look deeper and jumps look bigger. I call it the Josh Sherman phenomenon. His waist-deep is Mikkel Bang's knee-deep. I digress. But this jump would have looked huge if Shawn Bradley or Andre the damn Giant hit it. If big jumps are your gin, this one will have you calling a bail bondsman.

Jason Robinson, Blair Habenicht and Wolfgang Nyvelt all had memorable sections. Those are the types of guys whose parts I always look forward to. That riding looks fun AND gnarly. The type of shit that pushes boundaries while not looking like it's all insane all the time.

Bode Merrill tore it up once again. All around. I don't know how they picked his ender. He had at least four that I thought would bring the movie to the credits. They just kept coming. An early contender for video part of the year.

Other hits include weird homemade music, sketchy avalanches, strange urban scenarios and pow, lots of pow. The rest of the roster of riders includes: Victor de le Rue, Jason Robinson, Victor Daviet, Romain de Marchi, Mat Schaer, Scot Brown, Johnnie Paxson, Mathieu Crépel, Sylvain Bourbousson, Nils Arvidsson, Ozzy Henning, Rusty Ockenden and Manuel Diaz.

If I didn't get the point across, this is a movie to buy and watch all the damn time. It's an instant great. You'll see it at all the awards shows and you'll have parts that you watch on repeat. 

The Absinthe crew is still out on tour, so catch them while you can. This is one to watch and watching it live on a huge screen is always more fun. Check out the full tour schedule and get all the details on Absinthe's site.