Rip Tide is a 2017 Australian teen drama film. The movie was directed by Rhiannon Bannenberg, produced by Steve Jaggi and written by Georgia Harrison. It stars Debby Ryan. The coming-of-age film follows an American model who travels to an Australian beach town to reconnect with her family and her aspirations.
Plot
Cora Hamilton becomes overwhelmed with the constraints of her New York modelling work, while her mother works to secure her with a lucrative contract with a popular agency. Cora tries to provide her own ideas on improving one of the outfits that she is modelling, but is rejected by the director of the photo shoot. While running out of the photo shoot in an emotional state, a video is filmed of Cora falling down stairs, which goes viral. Cora travels to a beach town of Australia to stay with her Aunt Margot to escape the attention that the video has created. She is welcomed in by the laid back community, and soon strikes up a friendship with the bubbly Chicka. With Chicka's encouragement Cora learns to surf. A romantic friendship soon follows with local surfing instructor, Tom. Though a friend of her aunt she is welcomed in by the laid back community, and encouraged to help at an upcoming festival. She is given a sewing machine and encouraged to design her own collection based on post war swimwear. The longer she stays with Margot she realizes that her aunt has unresolved grief over the death of her husband several years ago. Sofia, Cora's mother and business manager has negotiated a lucrative deal for Cora to be the face of a new season campaign for a New York fashion house. Cora is faced with the dilemma of having to decide whether she will stay, or return to her fast-paced New York career. Cora chooses to miss her plane when the airline refuses to carry her beloved sewing machine. She returns to rescue her Aunt who has gone surfing during the approaching storm. The local festival is headlined by the Cora's designed fashion show, her mother shows up unannounced and makes her peace with her daughter and sister.
Production began on the feature in late 2016. The film was shot in Illawarra and the Southern Highlands, on the South Coast of New South Wales in Australia. The film was financed by Screen Australia. Debby Ryan was cast as the central character Cora, after previously starring on the Disney Channel series Jessie. Ryan stated that she enjoyed the "freedom" of working in Australia, and noted the similarities between herself and her character in "finding herself".
