Watercolors

This is an extremely rare gem.

The story is so well done. Building our interest and feelings for the characters involved. Tye Olson is an amazing up an comer. He plays this role as someone who understands through experience what the character is feeling and how the character would truly be. Kyle Clare has immersed himself in his character as well.

There is so much I want to say about this film...but rather than tell you what is great about it, I would encourage you to watch, see and feel all the raw and touching emotion yourself.

This is a must see.

The pacing, the storyline. It was an unbelievable journey from start to finish..the parallels to Romeo and Juliet and Shakesperes interpretation of love permeates and carry's through the acting of these two young men. The two main characters portrayed by their respective actors were real. Their approach sensatvie and endearing. I hope you finfd this movie as meaningful as I did.!

I haven't seen this movie, but the DVD is due to arrive in the mail tomorrow. I logged onto IMDb to see what other viewers had to say. Don't EVER question why there are very few gay movies made. Every old queen and every too young adventurer always become superior critics. This is a gay movie. It does not star Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, or Sean Penn. Gays movies cannot accumulate large budgets and do the best they can with the material and cast they can find to work for free or pennies. I remember the first big studio gay movie, "Making Love" with Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson, directed by Arthur Hiller. This movie was blasted bigger than Nagasaki. It all but ended Hamlin's and Ontkean's careers. It took a quarter of a century to get the venomous taste out of the critics mouths before "Brokeback Mountain" was finally accepted. BUT, how many major gay films have been made since? The most popular gay novel in the world, "The Front Runner" has been sitting on some studios shelf for nearly half a century. Everyone is afraid of either making it or starring in it. Hats off to the producer of "Watercolors" for putting forth the effort. It did win two major LBGT film festival awards. BUT as another reviewer stated, the cast was excellent except for the coach. MAN! He's the reason I'm seeing the movie. Greg Louganis, not only an Olympic Champion, but a drama major. Why was his acting singled out? Couldn't that sentence have been omitted? Why must we as gays, destroy our own culture...music, theatre, movies??? Can't we EVER find words of praise to encourage MORE gay entertainment? Remember the old adage, "If you can't find something good to say...". I'm really looking forward to enjoying this movie tomorrow. ______________________________ addendum: I finally saw the movie this afternoon and it's haunted me the rest of the evening. One of the two leads has practically no experience at all, yet he sustained his character as a professional. I really found nothing to criticize...only words of praise and hope that this will be the first of many features by the director. The entire cast was superb. Music was expertly used. I don't watch gay porn, but I do collect gay films with good stories...THIS is one of the best. It ranks high with "Latter Days" and "Shelter". Ten Stars!

If you haven't seen this cookie cutter themed film before, do yourself a favor and don't. Two typical Calis- one a seemingly intelligent gay nerd falls for his opposite- the swimming jock who seems to be more confident and full of himself. They become fast friends and have an up and down friendship as they search for some connectivity in their lives. David Olivera wrote and directed this Cali mess whose heart may be in the right place, but whose dialogue is simplistic and cliched. There is nothing original going on here, we've seen it all before in better written scenarios. Oliveras takes no bold chances here, including changing the tired old Southern California venue we've seen way too often. Yawn!! The acting is okay, but regrettably, there's little for them to work with here. My rating: DWYT - Don't Waste Your Time!

"Watercolors" played at San Diego's FilmOut today. I have to say, when we read the synopsis in the FilmOut guide, and watched the trailer, we both thought this was going to be just dreadful. We weren't sure we wanted to even sit through it. I'm so glad we did -- it would be a mistake to miss -- to our amazement, this is a terrific film! First-rate acting all around, with special note to the dad's demonic smoking, the art teacher's facial expressions, the mother's nuanced looks. The writing, while melodramatic, is well-done. Nice cinematography, with cool underwater shots of the swimmers, long shots of outdoor scenes, and so forth. The casting, for the most part, fit nicely, especially Tye as Danny. It was fun seeing Greg Louganis as the coach, although I think it would be have been terrific to cast him as the anti-swimming father.

I especially liked the relationship between Danny and his mother. Very funny, touching, warm. The dad character could use more depth, but the mannerisms were nicely done. Tye as Danny looked so small and vulnerable (he's taller in real life, as we saw during the cast Q&A) and had such a perfect geek haircut.

This really didn't feel like a "film festival film", although it could do with a bit more editing to tighten up some of the scenes and cut the running time by 10 or 30 minutes.