Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

jfcampinell Coldwater is the story of an adolescent boy who is sent to a backwoods juvenile reform facility. As the film continues, we slowly come to understand the events that lead him there and the horrors that occur. While I would like to say that this story is completely fictional, it is not. The script and the characters are, of course, a work of fiction. However, the abuse that often occurs in juvenile reform facilities is all too real. There are many documented cases of emotional and physical abuse, in some cases even leading to the death of young teens, at these facilities all over the country. While this is a fictional story, I appreciate its realism. This realism makes Coldwater shocking and at times difficult to watch. This film is not entertaining in the way that many films are. However, I believe that it is important to watch because the stories behind it are very real.

SillyGayBoy I had a year at a tiny boarding school when I was 16. This movie hits me hard. These places can be awful and weird and have huge character growth at the same time. My place was not nearly as bad but there were certainly illegal things.I love that this movie goes into the character growth of men, how people can be better, but also the evil of other people in these situations. These people can crush us or they can help us be strong if we handle things right.This movie is very dark, well acted, very good and compelling story. I just finished watching it a second time because I could not get it out of my head. This story is haunting. It sticks with me. It must have been an honor to be part of it.I was recommended the movie Boot Camp after I watched this but it does not touch this movie. Similar concepts but this movie is 1000 times better.

ddcharbon This film has a political agenda, one I happen to agree with. That is, there's something wrong with juvenile detention facilities that are de facto concentration camps, that have no legal oversight or laws pertaining to them and where many young men have died over the last thirty years and whose only justification for this legal carte blanche is that the parents are the ones "sentencing" their kids there. The torture is certainly disturbing. But unlike one of the reviewers, I don't see much in the way of character development here. And while the young actor--who is the spitting image of Ryan Gosling (he even _acts_ like him)--does a good job; he develops along very predictable lines. The other characters are fundamentally flat, especially the Colonel who remains a cipher throughout the film: we never learn really why he's such an asshole or what he thinks about his own asshole behavior. Character development for him turns out to be drinking more in the film's third act and fondling his pistol with suicidal thoughts. The film ends very disturbingly and certainly leaves a mark, as it were. But the final confrontation between Brad and the Colonel is absolutely wordless and without much depth--a problem with much of the film. I think it won at the film festivals for the disturbing violence yoked to its liberal politics, not for its storytelling.

Sam Saunders I just saw this movie at its premiere at SXSW. It's an intense film about a young man who is sent to be 'transformed' at what you might call a juvenile detention camp. Things deteriorate as the Colonel, played masterfully by James C. Burns, begins to unravel himself. The film is carried by newcomer PJ Boudousque, a name we should start getting used to. In his first film, he plays Brad Lunders, a teenager haunted by the mistakes of his past but determined to change his future, and that of anyone close to his orbit. His performance is intense and meaningful, saying as much with a look as he might with 100 words. Vincent Grashaw does a marvelous job with all the young cast, each bringing something very special to the film. The score is a triumph.I loved this film, and think for many people involved it will be the start of something big.