Le nageur

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.

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 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.

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.

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.