DRINKWATER Film Review

Let’s take a look at Drinkwater a coming of age comedy that is now available to watch for free with a Prime Video Canada subscription.

Drinkwater is a quirky homage to 80’s teen coming-of-age films about friendship, parental mishaps, and trying your best to survive high school. In small-town British Columbia, Canada, awkward teen Mike Drinkwater has trouble fitting in. Hank, his offbeat father, spends more time living in his own delusional world than paying attention to his son.

Mike’s lack of direction takes a turn when he meets Wallace, a new girl from the US. Over the course of Mike’s final semester, Wallace helps Mike train for an annual cross-country race, while Mike guides Wallace through an unfamiliar, Canadian experience.

The film stars Eric McCormack, Louriza Tronco, Daniel Doheny, Jordan Burtchett, Bob Frazer and Chloe Babcook.

Check out the Trailer below.

Hollywood North News received access to a screener of the film in exchange for an honest review.

Tried and Tested

Drinkwater is upfront with the fact that it is based on a certain kind of 80s coming of age story. That approach is an interesting one, a step away from the Hollywood trend of rebooting everything and instead taking inspiration from a very successful film trend.

The structure is clear to see and particularly notable with the music choices, this is definitely a soundtrack worth picking up if available. The fact that we begin with our ‘hero’ waking up was a direct poke to my sense of nostalgia is a good guide for what is to come.

Going Deeper

Drinkwater will stay with you after viewing because it instead of just copying the coming of age stories that went before it expands things. The easiest things to point to are giving more facets to “the bad guys” in this case the popular guy at school and his father. They are both flawed people but they are exactly that people not just tropes for our protagonists to overcome.

We see growth from the pair where we would usually see antagonists wallowing in defeat. I think it is a fitting change to things and shows us that people are not just one thing or another.

Mike

He is very much in the mould of those that came before, one of the things that struck me was how lonely he was. Even the worst “loser” in teen comedies and dramas have a friendship group but up to the point of him meeting Wallace he has no friends. Wallace’s grandparents seem to like him, enough that they trust him with her.

In a way that show how strong a person he is. It is clear that for some time his father has been all but absent but Mike is still going to school and getting good enough grades that he can consider applying to colleges. We would have sympathy if he wasn’t managing as well as he is, and it might explain the imaginary world he spends so much time in.

Wallace

I was a bit worried at first with the introduction of Wallace. My main concern was that we would never find out about her backstory with how front and centre Mike is for the first two thirds of the film. Thankfully Drinkwater does here the things it manages repeatedly throughout its run, it goes deeper than the surface.

We find out the tragic details that Wallace is coming from, the front she puts up for most of her introduction is so good I assumed she was being punished with the move up north. She’s inspirational and relatable, I’m surely not the only person happy to help others when things aren’t perfect in their own life. I like that she is there to continually inject some reality into Mike’s world.

Drinkwater is a fun adventure that is more real than it has any right to be. Combining the past and present with its familiar story and modern setting and approach makes it easy for me to recommend this to be added to your watchlist.