La Dernière Vague

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 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.

The violence . It seems the only theme and easy to define it as pretext for a non story film, in which the punches, hate, vulnerability as root of terrible angry are the only pieces.

But Drown is about what lives under violence. Experiences, need of respect, appreciation and love, the friendship as refuge and the toxic but so familiar manner to define yourself as man. Sure, a significant aspect is homophobia , in many forms . But the great thing is just the fair performances of main actors and the realism created by discontinous telling.

A film about vulnerability and thirst of affection more than about violence itself.

One of the worst films I've seen in a long time, gay themed or otherwise. There isn't one minute of this film that doesn't ring false. The relationships between the three characters is so far fetch that you spend every minute thinking that there is no way in hell these three would spend time together. If any one thinks this is an important gay film they must suffer from the same low self esteem and self loathing that the main character does. Are we really supposed to believe that someone who has a loving relationship with a seemingly very nice guy would give his antagonist the chance to repeatedly, and I mean repeatedly, torment and physically abuse him? Where is the logic in that? Any self respecting gay man would have had his tormentor throw in jail after the first scene and he could have saved us the torture that repeatedly followed. A total waste of time that is painful to watch.

This is a very important film as it puts the the ugliness of homophobia firmly under the microscope. Fantastic performances by Matt Levett (in particular), Jack Matthews and Harry Cook keep this piece moving along, aided by razor sharp direction by Dean Francis (who also DoP'd the film). It's hard to define this film - it's original. Shot on a mini budget around the beaches of Sydney and the seedy night spots of Kings Cross, the film is edited (also by Francis) is a montage style which works well, and suits the subject matter and feel of the film. The best way to describe it is as 'a ride'. As an audience, one is challenged, terrified, ashamed, enlightened and enthralled - but best of all, one comes out of the screening changed, and thinking deeply about what you have just seen. Seek it out. Highly recommended.