Submerge

(2013)

Johnny's comments:

Submerge is a drama about promising swim star Jordan (Lily Hall) who is balancing a hectic schedule of swim training and a history degree and it's starting to take it's toll. Jordan also becomes closer with her tutor Angie (Christina Hallett) who is married to the head of history Cameron (Andrew Curry). After initial rejection, Angie falls for Jordan and they have an one night stand which is all they have as Angie doesn't want Cameron to find out. Meanwhile, after qualifying for the Australian swim team, Jordan becomes more frustrated with how her life is going. She sees her friends including roommate Lucas (Kevin Dee), having fun and she wants that, but swim training is getting in the way. Then there's her mother, who desperately wants Jordan to succeed at swimming and when Jordan begins missing sessions, her mother suggests quitting university, but they compromise and she drops a class. After being introduced to a BDSM club by a girl she likes, Delilah (Georgia Bolton), it starts a path that will affect Jordan's life greatly.

Submerge is a quite watchable low budget drama that takes the path less travelled on the blurred lines of sexuality although the result ends up being the same. While there are the usual issues with low budget movies, Submerge gets by with a decent lead performance by Lily Hall, who also seems to be a pretty good swimmer which is more than exploited to good effect in the movie. Not a bad attempt at exploring twenty-something's sexuality, but by no means great either and the ending is a little too convenient.

I capped this movie from a HD download off iTunes, so the quality, while still very good, is a little down. And then there's the water scenes which are always the first to suffer off these web downloads. There's also scenes in saturated light or near darkness just for added frustration. Also, I found it strange that the university scenes were shot at my old university, Swinburne, which I don't think has ever happened in a movie before. It might have as there is/was a school of TV and radio there, but I don't recall coming across it before.

Lily Hall film clip with other women (collages below)




Christina Hallett film clip with Lily Hall (collages below)