Drown

Shame to see a reasonable cast wasted by truly awful writing and directing. This film takes a lens to homophobia and completely pushes it into an over the top, melodramatic, badly edited, annoying mess.

The sad part is the cast seemed reasonably good at acting but could have done well with anything else, even the most simplistic story would have allowed them to shine. Less is definitely more in this case and it needed way less.

It really is a bad movie and an example of what happens when someone tries too hard and doesn't have anyone around them to say stop, this isn't working--it's unrealistic, exaggerated for effect and needs a rewrite. Awful ending too.

The movie has hundreds of time jumps backwards and forwards, it is confusing.

The movie shows the last days of an homophobic and somewhat psychotic beach lifeguard and the huge fear to recognize his own homosexuality, despite he always seems to flirt with the idea. His best friend is the shy "hung" dude, who obeys all what the homophobic says.

There are many gay bashing scenes. The gay character is mostly employed as a punch-bag.

There is just one nudity scene where we can see someone's butt at a distance, and their hands hiding the genitals.

The final beach scene has many continuity errors.

The most cinematic looking Australian film I've seen, considering it was dirt cheap to make that just shows the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the filmmakers to keep us engaged and not get wound up on the little things. The film is shot in an unconventional, hypnotic style similar to (good) Terence Malick films and contains moments of nightmarish surrealism. The audience is successfully implanted into Len's mind state, with his nihilistic viewpoints burrowing under our skin and confronting us with the messy, confusing playground that is life. The absurdness and harmful elements of the idea of masculinity (bullying, peer pressure, risk taking behaviour) are hurtled towards us like asteroids, like all the memorable films, it doesn't cutely slip in its message with smugness but delivers it with sledgehammer force. The film is ugly, unpleasant, and unflinching, but that is exactly the point of it so those really can't be used as complaints. If it made you sick, it has done it's job. Homophobia is not a cute issue and should never be treated as such. There are sprinkles of dark humour in it too for those who need a bit of relief, but you won't have much time to breathe, it will pull you back in before you can. If you want to challenge yourself and your viewpoints, give it a watch, make sure it's on a big screen too.

Drown may be set in a world/community that I'm not very familiar with but it's almost impossible not to relate to the tight knit brotherhood based on sports and drinking that is showcased in this film. It captured so seamlessly the dynamic between young men bonded over a common passion or a sport. A dynamic in which your bros and your masculinity is all that counts, no place for weakness, tenderness or affection.

Len is the typical and yet quite the unconventional bully, his obsession with Phil is unnerving, and the same could be said for his relationship to his best friend/lackey "Meat." But what makes Drown interesting is the feeling that regardless of Phil's sexual orientation, there is no doubt that Len would have bullied and harass Phil. Yes Phil's sexual orientation enraged Len but the insight into Len's upbringing only cemented his reaction to Phil's addition to the team. Meat is not just the unsuspecting guy who can't stand up to his friend and finds himself at the wrong place and time. He shines a new light on Len, while giving a few layers to Meat. Phil (Jack Matthews) is also very interesting, he may not exactly be in the forefronts of this story but his willingness to put up with everything just so he could belong to the group is sad and impressive at the same time.

The cast did a marvelous job Matt Levett's Len was captivating and intriguing, his inner turmoils is palpable and great to watch. Harry Cook's performance as Meat was quite and powerful, and Jack Matthews' Phil is relatable and very real.

Much like Len is confronted with his inner demons, Drown confronts the audience to what we've all seen happened at some point in our lives, bullying. The film is honest, intense, brutal and raw, a clash of worlds that make for an amazing emotionally charged climax. @wornoutspines

Australian films and TV series have always interested me. Such a far and isolated western society has brought us so many different point-of-view and awkward plots and directed novelties. From Las aventuras de Priscilla, reina del desierto (1994) to Lonesome (2022), from Mad Max - Salvajes de autopista (1979) to Romper Stomper (1992), there's always an unexpected editing or plot.

This movie is not at all to be put in this hall of fame. First, it took me like 29 minutes to understand what were flashbacks, what were fantasies, and even to be sure when I was really into the regular story. So if you're going to watch it, be aware that you'll need special attention to keep track. The editing is not good enough to show you where you're at. In addition to that, I kind of understood that the same scene is shown again with a different point of view near the end (I mean, I think so, not sure). Not everyone is as good as Gus Van Sant with Elephant (2003) doing that. It's almost ridiculous. Like an extremist art house terrorist movie directors competition, the one that make the audience the most lost, wins.

Not to spoil it, but to help, I'd just say that it's the story of one night. Everything else is flashbacks, or dreams, or fantasies (it took me a while to define this). And that night is cut with flashbacks of that same night !!! (Wow...). So let's redefine it again, it's the story of one end of the night.

Then I had to watch it in two parts. My mate made me shut it down at about the half of the movie, telling me, "that's again one of those movies made by straights about things they believe to know"- This happened at a useless disgusting scene with vomit, even given the fact that the actors were handsome. "He's a straight". I guess my friend meant that this actor whatever he's straight or not, didn't play well enough the forbidden attraction he's supposed to feel and to restrict towards his friends - this is not true in all the scenes, but a general feel. Meanwhile, he plays well a homophobic hater.

Plus, the sound editing is not good. Even equipped with a 5.1 home theater system, some dialogues were hard to decipher.

But all in all, I was interested to know what that closeted, self-hating and psychotic gay guy was going to become (or do), it kept me watching it until the end. So at least, the plot was somewhat not that bad. It should have been directed in a much better way, most of the time there aren't bad actors, but bad directing of them. I wouldn't watch this twice.