Groupers (2019)

Acting is generally bad, and quickly devolves from taut revenge thriller to screwball comedy, but I was actually kind of interested in the characters that showed up after the first scene. Intriguing more in concept than execution, but even so.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

"Meg" (Nicole Dambro) is being courted by a couple of lads in a bar. She decides to take them back to her place, so into the back of her van they get. Next thing, they awake to find themselves tied up on the floor of a swimming pool with a small tube connecting them at the groin. Why? Well it seems that "Brad" (Peter Mayer-Klepchick) and his dimwit buddy "Dylan" (Cameron Duckett) have been engaging in some fairly horrible homophobic bullying at school. "Meg" has decided to exact some revenge for her persecuted brother "Orin" (Jesse Pudles). Now these guys claim that sexuality is voluntary, a choice: so she advises them that their only way to freedom is to prove their case and have their two erections meet in the tube that is connecting them. Now for the first twenty minutes or so, this is actually quite a fun and innovative story. It would have made for a perfect sort film. Sadly not, though. The initial impact of the plot is increasingly wasted as the brother shows up, then some passing opportunist thieves then, well the whole thing just runs out of steam; suffers from a surfeit of verbiage and a distinct lack of purpose. It's almost as if director Anderson Cowan didn't quite have the courage of his convictions to stick with the initial potent and entertaining theme through to some sort of conclusion. As it is, that theme is compromised all too quickly leaving us with a muddled and rather annoying cast that it was impossible to engage with. Pity - it could have been an interesting exposé on sexuality peppered with some mischief. Sadly, it doesn't choose that path...