Watercolors (2008)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent but underrated film

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

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.

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.

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.