The Swimmer

Sure, seeing a bunch of well-built athletes walk around in tiny speedo's (and occasionally without them) is absolutely pleasant (I admit, that's what attracted me in the first place), but it's by far not enough to make a decent movie. One also needs some sort of a solid story, one or two characters that you can relate to, and at least some adequate acting. This movie failed on all of the afore-mentioned accounts.

The story goes nowhere, it's evidently meant as some sort of coming-of-age thing, and to denounce homophobia, but apart from the occasional macho talk in the locker room and the questionable opinions of the coach, it all seems to be more in the head of main character Erez, who right from the start of his entrance in this training camp seems to do his utmost best to NOT fit in with the rest.

This already begins with him wearing a flaring orange speedo amid all other plain blue ones, but he also doesn't follow rules, smokes pot, behaves like an irritating and hormone-driven #me-too stalker towards his best buddy and eventually becomes more and more cranky and antagonizing in his behavior. He's not in the least sympathetic and his constant whining is not moving at all, only annoying. Oh, and suggesting that the apparently homophobic coach is a hidden homo himself is such a lame cliché and really way too easy!

As for the coming-of-age aspect: I have no idea what Erez in the end has learned about himself or about his place in the world; if there's meant to be any Werdegang or an emotional transition, then I didn't see it. So I give it 4 out of 10 points for the speedo's and the smooth bodies, but that's it.

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 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.

So we have swimmers competing for one spot at the Olympics, driven by a hard-as-nails coach and all that seems pretty run-of-the-mill. What promised to be different was the story of the closeted swimmer attracted to a rival, but it fell apart. I wonder if scenes were cut that would have added texture and depth because I wondered why the coach suddenly turned against the swimmer he said was going all the way, and why being gay in Israel would disqualify anyone from being on an international team. Someone says the coach has never done anything in his life, but we don't know that or what his story really is. Likewise, we have very little understanding of the main character's life or why he's suddenly "kicked out of" the locker room. What happened? And then the ridiculous disco ending just made no sense. If you make it to the end you'll wonder why Erez seems to do what he does...anything else would be a spoiler. Better yet, don't waste your time. There are echoes here of a brilliant movie, Chariots of Fire, and invoking that film was a mistake because it makes this one seem puny.

I went in expecting a thriller, and I came out of the cinema confused about what I've gotten. This movie can't really decide what it wants to be and feels a bit all over the place while also being somehow unimaginative.

Aside from it's unquestioned obessision with muscular, trained bodies, nothing really gets followed through. It wants to be a character study, but the characters sadly don't have a lot of depth to them. And that's not the actor's fault, they're doing the most with what they're given. But most of the characters are just set dressing and the main characters motivations feel obscure rather than mysterious, the homophobia is turned up to a hundred while at the same time never really being understandable in its exaggaration and it all leads nowhere.

Also, the music is terrible. Almost everything sounds like a cheap porn-Soundtrack but apparently wants to be taken serious.

There are far better gay movies out there, go watch them instead. This isn't really interesting, romantic, or thrilling (in any sense). It feels like, 'Free Fall' (2013 by Stephan Lacant), but bad. It lacks anything that made that movie a classic, from the characters to the visual style. This just looks like any mediocre gay movie that is satisfied with being gay as it's selling point, all the while it could have been great because the potential was there. The initial setting is new and interesting, the team of characters could be explored way further, even the rawness of the location has a lot of visual potential. But alas, the movie just always takes the easiest road, leading to mediocrity.

There are three interesting scenes, and the rest you've probably already seen very similarly elsewhere.