Streamline is one of the most powerful and raw movies to come out of Australia. At first it is the story of the dark side to Australia's rise to the top of global Olympic swimming success, that of the clubs, coaches and sporting institutes that recruit, train and drive hard up-and-coming teenage swimmers. The movie centers on 15 year old championship swimmer Benjamin Lane (Levi Miller) who hails from the Gold Coast in Queensland. Under the constant driving tutelage of his mother Kim (Laura Gordon) and Coach Clarke (Robert Gordon), Ben is on the cusp of Olympic selection due to his supreme athleticism and punishing training regimen.
Suddenly into his life steps his absent father Rob (Jason Issacs) who has been released from jail after a lengthy sentence for corruption as a high ranking cop. Years of domestic violence and abuse leaves Ben disoriented and scared to see his father again. This dramatically interrupts the intense training regime that Ben has been under and eventually he cracks at a crucial meet and is diagnosed as overworked and overtrained and takes a month off. On his first return to training, relentlessly pushed by his coach and mother, he snaps in a fit of pent up rage and frustration at being the athletic plaything of their aspirations (and who both demeaningly call him Boy) and he dramatically quits swimming, fighting with his coach dragging him into the pool. His angry and disappointed mother kicks him out and he goes to live with his older adult brothers who bear numerous emotional scars from the years of violent abuse suffered at the hands of their father. Relentless training is replaced with boozing, smoking and skylarking around. Ben is taken to watch his older brother Dave (Jake Ryan) humiliate their father who works at a prison release kitchen cleaning job where they throw food at him and re-create humiliating acts from his childhood. Witnessing the humility of his father throughout this abasement and the drunken dysfunction of his older brothers begins to have a salutary effect on the young impressionable Ben.
Ben's girlfriend Patti (Tasia Zalar), her father is one of his teachers at school who tries to be a good mentor to Ben during his emotional upheaval, she encourages him to return to swimming. Meanwhile Ben rides his bike at night to watch his mother go into her apartment and his dad finishing his work both from a distance.
On his 16th birthday, his mother brings him a vegan cake (that his brothers mock) and a change of clothes but Dave had organized a boozy, drug fueled party and sets Ben up with a sleazy girl that he has sex with only to have Patti walk in at the end of it. He steals his brother's car crashing it twice as he chases after her, she breaks up with him, he has a fight with her older brother and then his older brothers show up and get into the fight and at that point, Ben realizes that his messed up older brothers are seriously messing him up.
Drunk and high, covered in blood from fighting, hurting from being dumped, realizing his life is a mess, as the police are called to arrest Dave, Ben runs to his Dad's work to angrily confront him and his father has great advice delivered with the humility of a man broken by years of incarceration. The money line of the movie: "Men are made by their mistakes". There is a beautiful tear jerking moment of forgiveness and reconciliation as he encourages Ben to get back on track. It is the best part of the entire movie and beautifully and powerfully acted.
Ben reconciles with, and returns to, his mother, tries to get back with Patti, starts back his intense swim training and his formally hard nosed coach tells him "enjoy yourself" at his first meet back. A joyful newly minted Olympian Ben is interviewed by the great Aussie swimming legend Ian Thorpe making a cameo as a reporter and it is clear Ben is at much more peace because of the repair in his relationships with his parents. Be aware: This scene is lodged in the credits so anyone not watching all the way through will wonder if Ben was successful in his Olympic qualifying race.
A very shredded and athletic looking 17 year old Levi Miller certainly looked every inch the championship swimmer he plays which required training under the tutelage of Ian Thorpe who also advised the director on matters to do with the swimming culture. Miller had had a string of great child/teen performances already (Pan, Red Dog:True Blue, Better Watch Out, Jasper Jones, American Exit and A Wrinkle in Time) but his role as Benjamin is so good that it is a true breakthrough performance akin to DiCaprio's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" or "Basketball Diaries", that elevates him to the upper echelon of all time great teen actors and positions him brilliantly to take on more mature and demanding young adult roles. The intensity, the brooding adolescent nuances, the explosive pent up volatility of a boy whose whole life has been planned and organized for him and the volcanic suppressed anger towards his dad after years of childhood abuse and neglect, are all portrayed with fabulous understated intensity. Had this been set in the US looking at a similar trend in US Olympic swimming with say Michael Phelps playing a cameo and had it been marketed extensively in the US, there would mentions of an Oscar nomination so good is this performance. Levi Miller has the potential to join that small group of great teen actors who have gone on to become some of Hollywood's leading adult male stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Jamie Bell, he's that good. Miller's performance is scaffolded by superb performances from all the supporting actors.
Suddenly into his life steps his absent father Rob (Jason Issacs) who has been released from jail after a lengthy sentence for corruption as a high ranking cop. Years of domestic violence and abuse leaves Ben disoriented and scared to see his father again. This dramatically interrupts the intense training regime that Ben has been under and eventually he cracks at a crucial meet and is diagnosed as overworked and overtrained and takes a month off. On his first return to training, relentlessly pushed by his coach and mother, he snaps in a fit of pent up rage and frustration at being the athletic plaything of their aspirations (and who both demeaningly call him Boy) and he dramatically quits swimming, fighting with his coach dragging him into the pool. His angry and disappointed mother kicks him out and he goes to live with his older adult brothers who bear numerous emotional scars from the years of violent abuse suffered at the hands of their father. Relentless training is replaced with boozing, smoking and skylarking around. Ben is taken to watch his older brother Dave (Jake Ryan) humiliate their father who works at a prison release kitchen cleaning job where they throw food at him and re-create humiliating acts from his childhood. Witnessing the humility of his father throughout this abasement and the drunken dysfunction of his older brothers begins to have a salutary effect on the young impressionable Ben.
Ben's girlfriend Patti (Tasia Zalar), her father is one of his teachers at school who tries to be a good mentor to Ben during his emotional upheaval, she encourages him to return to swimming. Meanwhile Ben rides his bike at night to watch his mother go into her apartment and his dad finishing his work both from a distance.
On his 16th birthday, his mother brings him a vegan cake (that his brothers mock) and a change of clothes but Dave had organized a boozy, drug fueled party and sets Ben up with a sleazy girl that he has sex with only to have Patti walk in at the end of it. He steals his brother's car crashing it twice as he chases after her, she breaks up with him, he has a fight with her older brother and then his older brothers show up and get into the fight and at that point, Ben realizes that his messed up older brothers are seriously messing him up.
Drunk and high, covered in blood from fighting, hurting from being dumped, realizing his life is a mess, as the police are called to arrest Dave, Ben runs to his Dad's work to angrily confront him and his father has great advice delivered with the humility of a man broken by years of incarceration. The money line of the movie: "Men are made by their mistakes". There is a beautiful tear jerking moment of forgiveness and reconciliation as he encourages Ben to get back on track. It is the best part of the entire movie and beautifully and powerfully acted.
Ben reconciles with, and returns to, his mother, tries to get back with Patti, starts back his intense swim training and his formally hard nosed coach tells him "enjoy yourself" at his first meet back. A joyful newly minted Olympian Ben is interviewed by the great Aussie swimming legend Ian Thorpe making a cameo as a reporter and it is clear Ben is at much more peace because of the repair in his relationships with his parents. Be aware: This scene is lodged in the credits so anyone not watching all the way through will wonder if Ben was successful in his Olympic qualifying race.
A very shredded and athletic looking 17 year old Levi Miller certainly looked every inch the championship swimmer he plays which required training under the tutelage of Ian Thorpe who also advised the director on matters to do with the swimming culture. Miller had had a string of great child/teen performances already (Pan, Red Dog:True Blue, Better Watch Out, Jasper Jones, American Exit and A Wrinkle in Time) but his role as Benjamin is so good that it is a true breakthrough performance akin to DiCaprio's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" or "Basketball Diaries", that elevates him to the upper echelon of all time great teen actors and positions him brilliantly to take on more mature and demanding young adult roles. The intensity, the brooding adolescent nuances, the explosive pent up volatility of a boy whose whole life has been planned and organized for him and the volcanic suppressed anger towards his dad after years of childhood abuse and neglect, are all portrayed with fabulous understated intensity. Had this been set in the US looking at a similar trend in US Olympic swimming with say Michael Phelps playing a cameo and had it been marketed extensively in the US, there would mentions of an Oscar nomination so good is this performance. Levi Miller has the potential to join that small group of great teen actors who have gone on to become some of Hollywood's leading adult male stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Jamie Bell, he's that good. Miller's performance is scaffolded by superb performances from all the supporting actors.