The Swimmer

Nice intentions. Without being a bad film , it seems a collection of sketches. And each of them offers the impression to be abbandoned for other , then, the return to the first. It is a good film for details and suggestions, for fair image of life of a sportif , for few scenes and , not last, for acting.

But it offers not exactly a story . Only few frontal naked , a presumed romance in crumbs and a bizarre , but not wrong, dance scene.

Expecting to see it, I was not dessapointed . Only surprised for the apparently chaotic developement of film , with few sentimental moments, more in Russian style and with a story of comradery trying be more. The memory about it is centred around Omer Stricks , in happy and some bad manner.

I expect better from Israeli ' Gay films ' than this. For a start it is full of gay cliches; shower scenes showing male nudity, and a lot of other imagery that falls into the cliches of gay cinema. Omar Perelman Striks as the lead can act, and so is his possible love competitor Asaf Josef a good second lead. They are competing for a swimming place in the Olympics. The first quarter of the film seemed endless with a lot of male posing and plunging into the relentlessly blue water of the training pool. Then a sort of flirtation on both sides slowly happens but real feeling does not. The relationship side becomes a dead duck in the water and that relationship could have been a positive situation that would have saved the film. Male hysteria and yes homophobia becomes close to the absurd and there is one scene of camp dancing instead of swimming which looks badly choreographed and made me cringe. A defiant scene against male dominated homophobia in sport ? Maybe but it did not work for me. It is otherwise well filmed if monotonously and the Striks lead looks gay enough at the end. Quotable line. I do not believe in God but I do believe in Madonna. We have a dearth of good Gay/Queer cinema from the West, and usually films from Israel are worth seeing. The world we live in is too busy with urgent problems to think of than male sex/love and yet the world desperately needs to tackle complex themes that has homosexuality at its core. Complex, not open to the relentless straight eye to tear apart. This film does not succeed except in showing the male body and that is simply not enough. A real attack without the camp against straight dominance in sport would have been so much better with a real gay relationship at its core. A reluctant three for a goodish use of visuals and pacing.

What a disappointment. I don't particularly care for Israeli films for a number of reasons, some of which were present here in this film but I'll leave these aside as I've dealt with them elsewhere.

The film didn't mean anything at all. It flirted with the idea of gay swimmers or athletes but skittles away from it every time. Worse, it seemed to have been edited and cut badly as scenarios were presented that had no basis in what had come before. Why did the other guys turn against Erez all of a sudden with slurs about him wrongly being in the men's showers? How come the coach got so negative with him after being sure he could go all the way?

There was no back story to anyone, except Paloma and this threw up more questions than answers about her life and motivations.

The final scenes were not believable what with all the shouting and yelling. As for the competition, the way it was conceptualised was cringeworthy.

I watched it all, not for the slickness of the story but in the hope that something interesting or explanatory would happen. It didn't.

I saw this film at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2021 and didn't always follow the story but did enjoy the final race and how that was presented.

Unfortunately, the screening was a focus of protests aimed at drawing attention to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and a few points the screening had to be stopped while protestors were removed from the cinema.

As the film doesn't comment on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, I was surprised it had drawn such attention. What the film does comment on is topics I have seen better covered in other films and TV, Topics like sport people finding their identity and coping with the pressures of elite competition, I think Barracuda (TV Mini Series 2016) has a lot of similarities to this film and having more time as a mini series covers the themes better.

I was confused by the view point of the "Adults" in this film and I am not sure why the coach, assistant coach, house supervisor and the parents are presented this way. This is an enjoyable watch if you want to see young adults in speedos and the last section resolves the storylines well and includes a run representation of the swim race.

Everything about this movie is done well, from the acting to the soundtrack, everything works to create a cohesive whole. That being said, I did not like a single minute of it. It draws you in, thinking that there might be something more going on between these swimmers, and in the end you are left wondering, "Why did I bother trying to figure it out?". You go in thinking it's gonna be about two boys that find love while training to be the sole competitor for the Israeli Olympic swim team, and instead you are given a story about a possibly psychologically damaged young man with identity issues and his experience in an all boys swim team. It's false advertising, is what it is.

As an Gay film, it doesn't work. As a sports film, it doesn't work. As a drama, comedy, romance? None of the above works. It only works as one of those movies where you hope things end up going well for the people and it doesn't. I don't know about any of you, but I just don't enjoy movies that have no one to root for. I didn't root for anyone in this movie, because no one was worth rooting for. That in itself ruined what could have been a decent film.

This movie was not good and I suggest you avoid it.