Waves

Dramas have a challenge to make their stories interesting in some manner when most of the events in their narrative almost always happens due to a lie told by a main character. There has to be some kind of hook in terms of fascinating people, a style of filmmaking, or something out of the ordinary to keep audiences intrigued. Those filmmakers in the independent films area has some creative aspects that help them standout (for better or worse). This brings us to Wave, a drama film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults (Krisha and It Comes at Night). The marketing campaign intrigued me by the type of visual style it would be leaning towards and how good the actors appear to be with some of what was shown in there. Knowing how features that the studio A24 help produce usually have bad omens for many teenage characters, I was curious about what heart breaking shenanigans they were up to this time. I entered the auditorium not knowing a lot about it (it's been silent on the chatter regarding it) and left it impressed by the great work done here.

What's it about? The story follows a family undergoing a trial of horrific events following an irresponsible decision made by one of their members. The narrative structure involved here is fascinating in approaching things from the teenage son's actions and looking at the aftermath with a journey regarding the younger sister. There's a balance of blissful happiness and sad to watch drama that feels like they cancel each other out with the amount of screen time and quality presented. The camera work is very well done in following its characters, though it can get overzealous in car rides where it's spinning around quite a bit.

There are some issues that can get in the way of the quality reaching higher heights. The amount of screen time spent between the son and daughters respective arcs could have been altered considering their acting talent (the former could have had some aspect trimmed down and the latter should have been slightly longer). There's ambiguity in the storytelling getting in the way of their parents troubles (they aren't much of a focus but one more scene with them would have been nice).

How are the actors? In regards to the characters to focus on, the actors with a great weight of that responsibility are Kelvin Harrison Jr and Taylor Russell. Kelvin is gives a great performance in showcasing his emotional range regarding anguish and reckless nature in the arc he undergoes. Taylor is a delight to watch in overcoming an inner struggle that makes her worth rooting for. As for the supporting actors, honorable mentions go to Sterling K Brown and Lucas Hedges for their distinct strong portrayals of their respective roles.

Overall Consensus: Waves is an impressive drama that's works even better with its great performances, beautiful cinematography, and a solid script. ⭑⭑⭑⭑1/4🎟 Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes R

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors. You want to see a well-made independent film with a good script. You don't mind a lot of scenes of happy teens. You don't mind sensitive subject matter with high school teens.

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors. You mind a lot of scenes of happy teens. You have issues regarding sensitive subject matter with high school teens