Michael Bay Has benefited by a vibe shift among cinephiles in recent years, from punchline status to being (sometimes boring) recognized as a distinct author. Today it is more likely that you see someone with a letterboxd link in their cinema who says that “Ambulance” is an underestimated camp than to make SNIDE comments about Bay’s love for explosions.
If you want to distill Bay’s work to a clear theme, you can do much worse than the idea that the things we like as a child should not have to lose their value as we go into adulthood. From spaceships and military jet flights to literal Hasbro productsBay has always encountered like a little boy who grew up and had to spend his life playing with his favorite toys on a massive scale. He has always defended the fact that he makes the kind of unapologetic escapism that would have pleased him in high school and seems admirable to have an explosion to make films without concern for what film Snobs might think.
In that light it is perfect for Bay’s first move to documentary filmmaking is “We are bigs“A portrait of the world’s most famous parkour team that fears that aging bodies and Youtube demonization one day can force them to get real jobs. The film has lots of death -black spectacle when Daredevils chases greater and greater heights that jump between buildings, but it is ultimately a movie about what happens when seven high schools find a hobby and stick to it so long that they never have to consider the opportunity to do anything else. Until of course, they inevitably do.
With almost 11 million Youtube subscribers, the Parkour collective has known as Storor has become one of the biggest brands in athletics. The group was founded in 2010 by seven friends from southeastern England and has gained international fame and wealth by transforming urban spread into the ultimate obstacle courses. They spend their lives sneaking on the roofs on skyscrapers and jumping between them, hindering the railings and generally risking their lives for the excitement of precision. It is a medium that falls somewhere between sports and art, which requires creativity to see opportunities where others only see buildings and fitness to safely make hope that would end your life if you missed.
Advance members insist that parkour are misunderstood as simply jumping between buildings, although a solid 80% of stunt films in “We are Stooror” is They jump between buildings. And even though it is an transmission, it makes sense to distill the whole sport to an act that encloses the danger that the participants think is so poetic. A common refrain in the movie is that parkour is the only sport where you must never fail. Tom Brady threw interceptions and Michael Jordan missed baskets without consequences, but no one jumps between 100 floors skyscrapers gets a second chance if they do it wrong.
“We are Storor” has some eloquent monologues about Parkour’s precision and danger and what it says about life itself. But in their core, these seven building jumpers seem mainly motivated by love to spend time with their bridge. They all stumbled into parkour at young ages and their lives will forever be defined by the friendship they found in bigs. The provisional family has guided them through all formative chapters in their lives, from Middle School’s trouble to the moment you realize that all your friends marry and start families. When they nervously discuss what can come thereafter, it becomes clear that their greatest fear is change.
There is no ticking clock or a threatening finish line that poses an immediate threat to bigs, but the future is on everyone’s mind. It seems obvious that their bodies do not allow them to make these hopes forever, and at a certain time people will have enough to lose to make the risks unwanted. There are also the constant changes in Youtube algorithms – a rule change that demonetized roof jumps forced the crew to start finding new stunts to film, many of which are less artistically satisfactory for them.
In some ways, “We are bigs” feels like a movie that comes in age that happens a decade late, as these seven friends have largely been spared the burden to make pragmatic decisions in their teens and 20s thanks to the success of their Youtube channel. There is a limit to how much sympathy can feel for their monologues about losing the infinite freedom to spend time with friends without responsibility, given that they liked it for a fixed decade more than someone who looked at probably did. Nevertheless, “We are Storor” is a convincing document about a friendship that has shaped seven lives for the better and left them in the enviable position to honestly say that their deepest desire is that everything should remain the same. Father Time is undefeated, but sometimes the best way to temporarily freeze his effects is to spend a second jump between two skyscrapers.
Rating: B.
“We are big shoes” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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