With the release of “Waves” on DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as streaming services, audiences are getting a second chance at one of A24’s most underseen and bold projects to date. This is a lot coming from the cinema fan-favorite production and distribution studio behind soon-to-be classics such as “Moonlight,” “Lady Bird” and “Hereditary.” The studio has garnered an absolutely unforgettable reputation of releasing well-crafted critically acclaimed films with moderate commercial success. However, not all of their films get their time to shine in the theaters and “Waves” was one of them.
“Waves” is a strange hybrid of both mainstream and artistic filmmaking. On one hand, it’s very modern aesthetic made up of the rich blue skies of South Florida and kinetic camera work, all topped off with a great but seemingly calculated soundtrack filled with the types of music one would see on one of those “chill music to do homework to” playlists, is the type of aesthetic you can catch on multiple modern mainstream movies and TV shows about the struggles of being a young adult in today’s society. The comparisons to “Euphoria” are not unwarranted. However, on the other hand, the structure of this film, which is distinctively split up into recognizable halves, is something we don’t see often.
The film follows an American high school teenager named Tyler, played by a wonderfully magnetic Kelvin Harrison Jr. (“Luce”), who is placed under an overwhelming amount of pressure by his family and friends. Writer and director Trey Edward Shults (“It Comes At Night”) puts the audience in the head of Tyler as he tries his best to navigate through what seems like a slowly brewing panic attack. Ultimately he is weighed down by a series of less than perfect decisions guided by his own ill perceived idea of what masculinity is, provided by a tough father and wrestling instructors who require nothing but greatness. We then see how these decisions impact the rest of his family and peers. Touching on themes such as forgiveness, grief and toxic masculinity, the film has a way of getting you into the exact headspace of its characters going through these exact ideas. Whether it be through its sharp and sometimes jarring editing by Isaac Hagy (“Guava Island”) and Shults himself, beautifully dynamic cinematography from Drew Daniels (“Euphoria”), some blatantly unsubtle but oddly enough effective needle drops, or through a changing aspect ratio, Shults absolutely loves to mess with and ranges in the film from extremely effective to showy and barely appropriate. In fact, that description can be said about the movie as a whole. A good chunk of it feels as though Shults had multiple ideas for cool and creative camera moves, cuts and needle drops specifically. However a lot of it also does feel incredibly passionate for the characters they revolve around, and the soundtrack does provide for some undeniably great cuts from Tame Impala, A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean and other great artists, even if it does feel like Shults is trying his best to let you know how cool his music taste is.
What is consistently great throughout the entirety of the film is the performances. Along with Harrison Jr., the film features the best performance to date from Sterling K. Brown (“This is Us”) as an ambitious and well-meaning father. In addition to this, Taylor Russell (“Escape Room”) gives both a literally and metaphorically quiet performance that you can’t help but empathize with.
“Waves” is at times a mixed bag, but the highs are incredibly high. Its structure gives off the feel and scope of an epic, and although some of this film is unnecessary and Shults missing his mark, it ends on an absolute high note that makes you think it was all worth it just to get to that point. Bold is the word to describe it.
Image from A24 via YouTube
