In the new movie “Waves,” paying attention is important or you’ll miss the metaphors.
By Denise Clay
If there’s one thing that you’ve got to hand the folks running the A24 movie studio, it’s that they realize the importance of bringing in small, otherwise untold stories and letting directors tell said stories exactly their way.
I mean hey, this was the studio that gave us “Moonlight,” an Oscar-winning film that introduced us to the talent of Barry Jenkins, Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man In San Francisco” and Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, “Lady Bird,” personal films that no one could mistake for being anything other than art.
As part of the 28th annual Philadelphia Film Festival, I saw the latest film from A24, “Waves.” Written and directed by Troy Edward Shults, “Waves” tells the story of a South Florida family trying to flow while dealing with a major loss.
Each member of the family is dealing with this loss and their own internal issues. There’s the father Ronald, portrayed by Sterling K. Brown of “This Is Us,” who chooses to handle it by being a fairly demanding father to his children Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a star wrestler who has so internalized his father’s constant “twice as good” sermons that he resorts to self-medication rather than tell him he has a season-ending injury and Emily (Taylor Russell), who keeps her feelings close to the vest. Meanwhile, their stepmother Catherine (Renee Elise Goldsberry) is holding things together by trying to be supportive to everyone involved.
And as the movie begins, it works. Until it doesn’t. And without giving away too much of the plot, the inability to deal with setbacks constructively on Tyler’s part winds up turning a situation between he and his girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) from something that can be fixed with time to something that involves time itself.
Then, everyone is forced to process things, and the second half of the movie focuses on Emily, how she gets through the fallout left by her brother’s actions, how she helps her brother’s wrestling teammate Luke (Lucas Hedges) get through some of his emotional baggage through what she’s learned, and the life she makes for herself and others in the process.
Now don’t get me wrong. I like a good art house film as much as the next reviewer. Heck, I’ve sat through many a film that Director Martin Scorsese would consider art. I’ve even sat through Scorcese’s stuff.
But that said, the only thing that kept me from saying “Are we there yet?!” out loud during “Waves” were the performances, which were pretty compelling when you consider the fact that the movie itself was kind of incoherent in spots.
When it comes to the male leads, especially Brown and Harrison, the best word to describe their performances would be “visceral.” The competition between this father and son was hard to ignore on the screen and it was because of their performances. And when Ronald Brown’s character realizes that sometimes winning isn’t everything because of what you lose in the process, that really shows.
(But on a totally unrelated note, could we just once see Sterling K. Brown in a role that doesn’t make you cry?! He makes you cry every week on “This Is Us.” Heck, he even had you crying in “Black Panther”! He’s proven that he’s got the dramatic acting thing on lock. Can we get this man a comedy?!)
“Waves” is a film that has beauty along with its chaos. But if you don’t pay close attention to it, the chaos is all you’ll see.
The film opens Friday.
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