Men are made by their mistakes. It's only when you lose everything you find out who you are. You find the best part of yourself.

For a directorial debut, Tyson Johnston did a solid job making a touching and investing story. The performances were all solid. And hey, there's Jason Isaacs, who did a great job even though he had little screen time.

The story itself still was a bit too quick. The relationship between the estranged dad and the kids should have been explored further.

Overall, it's a good drama with potential. 7.5/10.

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 jail term 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 and is diagnosed as overworked and overtrained and he 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 demeaningly call him Boy) and he dramatically quits swimming, fighting with his coach dragging him into the pool at the first attempt at training. His angry 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 humiliation 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 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 around a vegan cake (that his brothers mock) and a change of clothes but Dave has 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 the middle of it. 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 arresting 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.

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 swimming legend Ian Thorpe acting as a reporter and it is clear Ben is at much more peace because of the repair in his relationships with his parents.

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 the great Ian Thorpe (Aussie swimming legend) who advised the director and made a brief cameo. 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 it is a true breakthrough performance like 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 been marketed extensively in the US market, 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.

Streamline is such an impressive and captivating film. Easily the best Australian film I've seen in years. This is a coming of age film about a young swimmer that defies all the cliches of the genre. Levi Miller's performance as Ben is amazing; so much is said with so few words and he never betrays the role. Ben leaps off the screen and my concern for his welfare left me holding my breath for most of the film. Jason Isaacs is Ben's estranged father whose release from prison prompts Ben's world to suddenly overwhelm him. The movie unfolds beautifully, with incredibly natural performances that anchor it firmly among the best Australian films. The photography is brilliantly understated, supporting and never distracting from the story. The sound is similarly masterfully used. Tyson Wade Johnston, the writer and director, is so effortlessly confident that it's almost incredible this is his feature debut. Highly recommended.