Conceived entirely by auteur Morgan Krantz, the indie with the quirky, enigmatic title The Water Is Always Warm is a difficult one to categorize. Armed with crumbs, he aims for the stars — and manages to reach them. I found myself entertained but also oddly disturbed, intermittently tickled, and ultimately moved and impressed by the proceedings, feeling the need to share this film with everyone I knew as soon as the credits rolled.
It starts off with a surreal, hilarious interlude which turns out to be a story aspiring actor Krutch (Krantz) is telling his friend Caroline (Megan Koester) over dinner. Caroline is a hoodie-wearing screenwriter, and Krutch exorcising his demons serves as a source of inspiration for her. The film is split into segments, with the two friends meeting at a variety of Los Angeles-based diners, and in each one Krutch reveals a story, or they simply shoot the sh*t about a variety of topics, primarily religion. As the film progresses, we learn more about them, but more importantly, we start questioning ourselves and our own beliefs.
It’s a clever, albeit simple narrative device, but it allows the star-writer-director to go for broke and unleash his creativity. Almost every shot is carefully composed, and Krantz alternates between grainy, shaky lo-fi footage, black-and-white cinematography, and crisp, symmetrical shots, all linked together via animated tunnels, as if he were hopping between alternate dimensions (which he maybe is).
Krutch and Caroline share a meal and conversation in a diner booth in The Water Is Always Warm.
“Caroline is a hoodie-wearing screenwriter, and Krutch exorcising his demons serves as a source of inspiration for her.”
The screenplay is stuffed with witty, memorable lines. “It is incredible that you’ve managed not to change one thing about your looks since seventh grade. You just locked it right in, didn’t ya?” Krutch says. “If it ain’t broke,” Caroline replies dryly. “Your spineless and shapelessness are what make you a great actor but you’re also a ridiculous person,” she says. “You think I’m a great actor?” he instantly retorts. My favorite line may be: “Mick Jagger jogs several miles a day… Doesn’t that knowledge hurt?”
Friendship, Scientology (and resorting to religion as escape and a means to seek success), masturbation and sex, the pursuit of dreams, the passage of time — these are just some of the topics touched upon in the thematically heavy but somehow never cluttered narrative.
Krantz is compelling and natural in the lead. His chemistry with Koester is palpable — not for a second do you question their friendship. It’s an easy-going rapport — which is crucial for a dialogue-driven experiment such as this — the duo exchanging sharp quips and delving into deeper waters like they’ve known each other for years. To spice things up, Krantz includes quirky side characters — a sexy cougar with a broken leg, an eccentric waiter who’s also an actor, and so on.
It’s rather remarkable, the balancing act Krantz pulls off here. The Water Is Always Warm is funny, insightful, irreverent, both grounded in reality and psychedelic, saying a lot about our existence with an effortlessness that more seasoned filmmakers strive to achieve. It’s a testament to the power of truly indie films, films that get overlooked, films that aren’t backed by A24 or led by A-listers, but are driven by ideas, by the need to share something new and profound with an audience. In less capable hands, this could’ve easily slid into incomprehensible drivel. The water may be warm, but if there’s any justice, Morgan Krantz is about to become a hot commodity.
"…funny, insightful, irreverent, both grounded in reality and psychedelic..."
