Watercolors (2008) User Reviews

Artist is haunted by high school relationship

[JetBoy · 7/10 · 29 May 2009]

"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.

Sensitive portrayal of frustrated love

[RichardvonLust · 7/10 · 16 October 2010]

OK so this is not going to grab any Oscars but I thought it nonetheless a very credible view of romance between two young men at high school.

Gay art student Danny is forced to share a room at home with Carter, a hunky swimming major who lodges there during difficulties at his own home. Carter needs help with his literature classes and Danny provides it in exchange for life drawing modeling.

A love develops that is fully realized and expressed by Danny but utterly denied by Carter who cannot even bring himself to be seen at school with his lover. The results are examined with sensitive dialog and quite acceptable acting. The love making scene in the rain is a triumph of art direction that would make many heterosexual movies appear vulgar. Tye Olson is excellent as Danny. Well worth a try.

WATER Marks

[NJMoon · 6/10 · 29 May 2010]

This film is better than most of it's ilk but only gets about halfway there. For every unexpectedly clever line, there's a cliché. For every great performance, there's a dud. Karen Black as the art teacher reminded me of Catherine O'Hara in any Chris Guest movie. Greg Louganis makes an appearance that makes us glad he chose swimming, instead of acting. But who better to play the swim coach of a gay swimmer? The swimmer resembles a young, long-haired Sean Penn. The other is just as attractive, but has been given ugly eyeglasses and an unfashionable hairstyle to make him into the classic geek. Romeo and Juliet figures prominently, so be warned. Uneven, but still - a very watchable flick, with two likable, attractive young men in the leads.

Excellent

[jm10701 · 22 October 2010]

For about the first twenty minutes I thought I was going to hate this movie, but it got better. Then it got better. Then it got even better, and it just kept on getting better all the way through to the end.

I strongly disagree with reviewers who say the adult bookends are irrelevant and badly done. They provide an essential framework for the story. The adult actors are neither as attractive nor as talented as the younger leads are, but that's fine; they don't need to be.

My only quibble - and it is a very minor quibble - is that the character of Henry is just too evil within the context of this movie. I know people like that exist, people who are so mean and so stupid that they would keep on smirking when the hero is having convulsions, but no other character in this movie is drawn with such unrelenting severity. He is so evil he ends up dragging the whole movie down in a way it doesn't need to be dragged down. I suppose his being so excessively monstrous adds extra weight to Danny's accusation that Carter hurt him even more than Henry did, but that accusation didn't need such heavy-handed reinforcement; it was powerful enough in itself.

The direction, photography and screenplay could not be much better - an impressive debut for David Oliveras. All the performances are outstanding, particularly Tye Olson and Kyle Clare as Danny and Carter and Casey Kramer as Danny's mother. To paraphrase at least one other reviewer, she is the mother every gay man on earth dreams of. This is a lovely, believable, extremely well done movie.

Wow, Beautiful.

[Paulinho17 · 9/10 · 8 December 2009]

Boy, am I glad I was able to see this movie.

The movie is about a young gay artist haunted by a tragedy during high-school. I won't go very deep about the story, but basically he fell in love with another boy during high-school and it didn't go very well. And believe me, not by the most common reasons. The story is really beautiful. Not having many characters, you get to know the 2 main characters very well and on the "crucial" moments it really gets into your heart. Except for Carter's coach, this movie has fabulous, gorgeous, amazing acting. You see the expression of anger in Darrien's face, when's angry, the heart-felt tears, when he cries, and the sensitive smile when his with either his mother, his best-friend and of course, Carter.

Plot: 8/10 - The reason why they met (and why carter lives with Darrien for a few month) isn't very «believable» but a beautiful romance develops as the movie goes on and grows on you.

Acting: 9.5/10 - Excellent actors. Well done.

Flaws: You never get to understand what are Darrien's mother and carter's father to each other. The movie is not very clear in terms of time. It seems as if only a few days have passed during the whole movie, but almost one year passed. (I think)

Personal Desire: I wish they could have developed a little more the relationship between Darrien and his mother. They could have made some touching scenes, since they were both great actors.

I'm glad it's not underrated, but having only 17 votes.... I suppose... not many people have seen it? Well, those people don't know what they're missing.

In my opinion...

[omega-metim · 4/10 · 24 December 2013]

I don't usually review films, but I began this movie with high hopes. The rating is at 6.4, which is damn near Oscar nomination worthy as far as lgbt movies go. 5 minutes in and I'm assaulted by atrocious acting. I thought to myself, maybe I got the movie mixed up. I came back to IMDb to look at some of the reviews, and what pains me most is one reviewer that gave this movie 10 stars admitting that the acting was horrible and that the script wasn't the best. And then this reviewer compared the movie to Shelter (which really was one of those Oscar nomination worthy as far as lgbt films go). But I decided to keep watching. The film really destroyed my concentration. It's not like there is just 1 bad actor, but a litter of them that come in the form of teachers and coaches and parents of the two teens. I'm all for letting a few things slide on account of budget issues, but lets call a spade a spade and admit that this was terrible. If we can't judge a film by the actors' ability to act or the script, then what criteria are we using to judge this? I hope that we're not judging based on the porn scene or the fact that the kids are naked quite a few times in the movie. The basics of the film's script were solid, but it needed to be polished quite a bit. I operate on a scale of 4 to 10, 4 being bad, 10 being outstandingly perfect. And few times I will use the rating of 1 just to say that the film was completely atrocious. I give this film a 4, which is the lowest on my basic scale and the only reason it didn't get a 1 is because the kid dies at the end, and I felt like justice was served. Just kidding. Like I said, the foundation of the script was solid, it was just executed very poorly.

One of the best gay themed movies ever !!!

[Michaelckdk · 10/10 · 1 June 2010]

This is a phenomenal and beautifully shot film about young gay romance. It is a gripping, dramatic, and moving portrayal of discovery and new love. I mean everything was utterly amazing: from the actors' performances (especially the Danny character), to the cinematography and even the haunting score playing all throughout. The movie is longer than most (almost 2 hours) but you honestly don't feel it because the story is so captivating and engaging. This is by far one of the best films ever made in this genre of gay themed dramas. There are scenes depicting sexuality with the unbelievably beautiful body of the swimmer character, but they are done tastefully and shot with an entrancing artistry. If there were Oscars for in-dies like this, I'd award it all the top honors. Highly recommended to the point I will compare all future films of the genre to this one! Truly a gay classic with an above average production value !

Why?

[sandover · 3/10 · 11 December 2009]

Why 'Watercolors' since the artist uses them in the film only in one occasion? Namely, at the end, gratuitously painting his lover's body, courtesy of Nipples&Close-up. If this was intended as an homage to body-painting, or the redeeming power of art I would not dare guess, but my bid is that is nausea-inducing to viewers that want something more than indulge into (their) two-dimensional melodramatic situations.

Please name one sufficient reason you feel involved by the opening-night mini-drama. Do you get it with dramatically plausible foregrounding? I for one think that if this is not pulled through, in any film, it will not recover from its flaws. And this one does not.

Tye Olson makes a decent effort, although he is dragged here and there by the melodrama of the situation. Yet, he seems alone in an unfortunate way: his 'lover' never shines through as an existing, separate character, he is a bunch of nervous reactions and frustration.

No chemistry, either. At the point where one should see, if one had, the boys' love-making, one gets a gloriously shot ass, a semi-fantastic scene that suffers and is weighed down to earth from a sentimental piano. This is not two adolescents discovering the thrill of sexuality, it is menopause shining.

The little dialogue between mother and son is perhaps the only point that really shines in the film, though it seems as a fragment from another one; and the casting of the younger and the elder artist is accurate, in terms of physiognomy.

"All bad poetry is sincere." Oscar Wilde

An unfortunately sincere film.

Sensational gay coming-of-age movie

[boib8inla · 10/10 · 10 June 2010]

This is one of those rare movies that stays with me for hours or days after, a "must see" that I know after only one viewing that I will return to again and again.

On the whole it is simply sensational, in plot, acting, direction etc. It is beautifully photographed (including some incredible underwater scenes).

The title puzzled me a bit until I realized it captured the key interest of both of the main characters: Danny, the artist, and Carter, the swimmer ("water" colors, get it?).

Occasionally one has to suspend disbelief but such moments are far outweighed by the overall impact. Example: the scene where it rains inside the living room, but the effect of that rain is to give the scene a surreal or magical quality that helps us feel what the characters themselves are feeling.

The ending is ambiguous rather than your standard happy ending but strangely "right".

In places the sound was a bit odd, e.g. a scene where Carter's skate board almost drowns out the conversation, and it was hard to hear the first few words of the scene where Danny's mom is talking to him on a bench at the beach in long shot (as soon as we came in close the sound returns to normal...I think this is a post-production error). But such fleeting flaws were not enough for me to reduce my score on the movie overall.

It's awards are well earned and this movie should be a 'must see' for anyone with an interest in gay cinema.

Soft Porn Schlock, Might Be Good For Teens

[meaninglessbark · 3/10 · 17 November 2013]

Watercolors would probably be most enjoyed by by queer guys in their young teens, they might find it meaningful.

But for grownups and people who like good film Watercolors is a predictable young queer romance tragedy with acting that's slightly better than the average porn film.

Watercolors looks nice, is well shot and edited, and has decent music choices. And there are some naked bits that are pleasing to see. But the story line is as subtle as being run down by a train that you're actually walking towards.

Here's what happens: Sensitive not surprisingly gay artist kid meets swimmer/sidewalk surfer dude, unbelievable queer flirtation happens, believable pathetic falling in love with a dolt happens, expected queer bashing happens, extremely obvious tragic ending occurs. (And just in case you didn't suspect there'd be a tragic ending there are clues along the way that are delivered with the coyness of a hammer blow to the head.)

For good measure there is a heavy sprinkling of clichés thrown in...The free-spirited art teacher who can see the amazing talent the sensitive queer kid has, the hard edged English teacher who teaches Shakespeare with FORCE, the crippled and pudgy female best friend of the queer kid who is also the photographer for the school paper, alcoholic single parents, intolerant jocks, and an angry school principal.

For WTF? weirdness the story of Watercolors is book-ended between some scenes from the sensitive queer kid's adult life which are absolutely ridiculous, add nothing to the story, and are the sort of dialog and acting that should only be followed by hardcore gay sex.

If you're not 15 and queer Watercolors is really best just for gawking at the cute nerdy sensitive kid and the Spicoli-esque swimmer guy who takes his clothes off a lot.

very moving gay drama

[dalek69 · 8/10 · 1 April 2010]

i was very moved by this film, it is tragic but with a hopeful ending as well. i felt the performances were very believable, the tender, sensitive Danny, (GREAT acting!) , the troubled, messed up carter, Danny's mother was great. as opposites attract, i liked the two opposites coming together, later on you just knew it was going to go wrong... carter's anger/feelings were heartbreaking, but from his point of view more or less understandable.

some flaws: it was a bit unclear why *exactly* carter came to stay with Danny. a bit of a shady/forced explanation. and we never found out the reason for or manner in which carter died. but it was tragic. I liked the way the movie ended though, a positive note, ***Spoiler*** with Danny finally patching up his not so easy going new relationship with new boyfriend in the end. he had to let go of (dead ) carter in the end.

yes, i think this is a believable gay drama and again , very touching. well done.

Well Worth The Watch!

[gregory1224 · 27 August 2011]

This film is a brilliantly acted coming of age film. For all of us who have experienced the tragic results of first love, this film will move us to tears. The love in this film is incredible. The young actors hold this film to together like seasoned vets. Another thing that I really liked about this film was the realistic scenarios that are portrayed on film. While the recovering alcoholic dad and mom could have been caricatures, the actors tackle them and make you actually feel for their problem. On a side note, the film stars the great Karen Black who gives another one of her great performances. This alone is worth the watch. I have never seen a David Oliveras film, however, now I look forward to seeing more of his films. To think that he wrote it...I wonder if it was from a personal experience. If so, wow!

Danny wheeler - pathetic human being

[Consumer007 · 1/10 · 16 May 2011]

Not only is Tye butt ugly in the face and has this horrible sarcastic look on his face all movie long but he portrays this character that is full of himself, self serving and a total victim. I found myself disgusted at this character's actions and final "solution". A total coward and unmitigated ass. He was completely unworthy of the affections of his lover from start to finish. Young people like this character are exactly what is wrong with the gay community. it should have been him who was bashed, not his naive lover.

On the whole the movie is a self indulgent dramatic waste. I hope for All the gay folks out there that they don't have lovers like Danny Wheeler As their first loves, or anywhere along the way either.

Meryl Streep is NOT in this movie.

[RitchCS · 10/10 · 20 May 2010]

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!

Absolutely Amazing....

[sammie-hartman · 9/10 · 8 January 2011]

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.

Just wow...

[bgoo-19890 · 10/10 · 26 June 2020]

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.!

We feel the tears of the broken heart crying its loss.

[Dr_Coulardeau · 9/10 · 22 December 2013]

A gay film about a couple of young teenagers in high school in Los Angeles or around, who are looking for their path out of the nowhere of their present, find it and then lose it and find it again but this time the paths are branching out, one low and one high. What is so special about this one that we can't find in any other?

The two young men are just so different that they should never have met and yet destiny and fate are the only trolls and gnomes who decide for us ,and in this case they bring together a brilliant student who is planning to major in art and a mediocre student who is on the swim team and needs to improve his grades in English and asks the brilliant future artist to help him with Romeo and Juliet. Fate I said.

What was to happen happens of course between the art student who knows he is gay but is just waiting for an opportunity to make him come out and the swimmer who does not know he is gay but is able to fool about with the idea in private but not in public. And fate works a tragedy out of it. The art student writes the swimmer's paper on Romeo and Julier but he does not know what style is and his paper is not fake enough to go through and becomes suspicious to the English teacher who has forgotten how he went through college and university.

Sure enough the swimmer's father is not very swift either and he reveals to his son his mother has been arrested and he has bailed her out in the distant Texas where she is living after her separation from her husband and where the swimmer wants to go to for college. The swimmer finishes only second in the competition that takes place on the following day of this bad news, of this second bad news. What's left then? Nothing and the artist is not strong enough to convince him that life is worth living even if swimming is his only horizon because he has just been kicked out of the swim team.

The end is tragic of course and the film is clear that the two young men are confronted to such a heavy pressure in their families, at school, from the administration, from the bullies, from their parents, from the teachers and the school's principal dares to announce the bad news on the intercom at the beginning of the classes. Communication is not exactly the strong point of school officials.

A jump a few years forward and the artist-to-be is an artist now, a successful one who has finally found the power of a style, of his style in his suffering, and some solace in a lover he does not seem to really see, at least not on his canvass, and the lover is hurt and suffers to only be second, though he is the real live one.

The end is touching in delicate watercolors if you want, but does it bring closure to the suffering of a death caused by all kinds of bullying elements in this life that becomes lethal on blinded purpose, with the only aim of making people who are too innocent not too hide their feelings suffer as much as possible because it is funny to see a living being suffering, and if it is to death it is even more attractive. Gladiators are no longer in circuses but gladiator-games take place in our everyday environment: in the street, in the subway, at school, and in all places where it is funny for a bully to torture his or her victim, in fact where he or she can find an audience.

This film is nearly refreshing in its sadness, even if I doubt a swimmer could be accepted on a swim team with shoulder long hair.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU