Starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Sterling K. Brown, Taylor Russell, Alexa Demie and Lucas Hedges, Waves is a coming-of-age, raw, emotional and sometimes funny drama/romance centred around the teenage children of a couple in modern-day America.
I liked the way Waves opened; the colours, camera angles and music, all of which worked to remind us of the seemingly carefree youthful abandon of late adolescence. As hectic, bright and beautiful as those moments were, it’s not too long before you realise that everything isn’t quite right. Tensions become apparent and it’s clear something is going to change – and not in a good way.
Tyler (Harrison Jr.) is a promising and troubled high school athlete unable to truly open up to his parents, so he suffers behind closed doors. His younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell), who seems to fade into the background much of the time, doesn’t have the focus of her parents, especially her father; at least not the way her brother does. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s Tyler’s troubles that end up tragically and irrevocably altering the lives of more than just his immediate family.
Considering the themes of familial tragedy and some very modern/American issues, it’s no shock to anyone that I shed a few tears as Waves played. Particularly because of the very real and raw way writer/director Trey Edward Shults’s film captures the emotional turmoil suffered by his characters. Some of it is so heartbreaking that I have to liken certain moments to having to watch an inevitable car crash while being completely unable to help.
Waves is the kind of movie you watch for the film making artistry, great acting and the ways it beautifully and realistically captures some of the most delightful and heartbreaking events in the lives of teenagers and parents in modern America. You will laugh and smile, be very concerned but also often moved by the generosity of spirit displayed before you.
‘Long’ is another word to describe this movie. It’s not quite the bladder-busting 3.5-hour length of The Irishman (2019). However, by the halfway point in Shults’s well-captured and highly affecting movie, you’ll think, ‘Yeah, I think it’s wrapping up now.’ Except it doesn’t wrap up because that’s when act two – or more fittingly, ‘the second wave’ begins. And so sit back down you must, because you’re going to need what it has to tell you, especially after the tragedy of ‘the first wave’.
Watch it because it’s good and if you’re curious.
Happy Film Loving,
G
