I enjoyed this quiet film. It'll reward you if you pay attention. The dark twists of the surprising script when compared to mainstream college stories like American Pie II makes me glad these film makers had the passion and dedication to bring their melancholy story of two swimmers to the screen.
They did kill off the gay guy so the straight guy could grow. But do gay characters always have to die in a politically correct way? Gay teen suicide is still common in small towns so it's not unrealistic to have the gay guy die, and gays are still fodder for the growth of plenty of straight folks.
A make out scene with the two swimmers would have made this a cooler film (and more commercial with gay audiences). The characters were almost there when they wrestled, straight guys make out all the time, why not give the audience some merging man flesh?
This is a film about an ordinary summer. With neither violence of Basketball Diaries, nor the over the top gross out of American Pie to titillate audiences these cinema artists offered instead a calm lake, a beautiful male body and two characters struggling to break free of their fathers.
Making a subtle understated film like this is risky, thankless work in Hollywood. We should be grateful for their efforts.
They did kill off the gay guy so the straight guy could grow. But do gay characters always have to die in a politically correct way? Gay teen suicide is still common in small towns so it's not unrealistic to have the gay guy die, and gays are still fodder for the growth of plenty of straight folks.
A make out scene with the two swimmers would have made this a cooler film (and more commercial with gay audiences). The characters were almost there when they wrestled, straight guys make out all the time, why not give the audience some merging man flesh?
This is a film about an ordinary summer. With neither violence of Basketball Diaries, nor the over the top gross out of American Pie to titillate audiences these cinema artists offered instead a calm lake, a beautiful male body and two characters struggling to break free of their fathers.
Making a subtle understated film like this is risky, thankless work in Hollywood. We should be grateful for their efforts.